Waiting for the Mountains to Fall
by reynapup
Summary: Embry Call imprints on a girl who was injured in the woods. Only problem is she doesn't believe in imprinting. Embry/OC.
1. Chapter 1: Yellow Backpack

** A/N: I wrote 20 chapters of this story in another account on this site. But I plan to not post my written works on that account anymore for certain reasons… but I'm re-uploading it under a new title and new account right here! Sorry about that, haha. Anyway, I'm planning to make the chapters in this story a bit longer and to tweak a few things. I hope that doesn't bother anybody… so it might take some time to get back up to date by tweaking and uploading all the chapters I've written before.**

Warning**: This story contains scenes of past violence and some forms of abuse. **

* * *

Chapter 1: Yellow Backpack

Little twigs drifted aimlessly in the night's whistling wind until they landed in one of the puddles scattered around the forest. The afternoon storm had left everything more muddled than usual. Nonetheless, the owls continued their hooting in the trees and the deer were sleeping away in the silence of the evergreen homes. The only animals still prowling about were the wolves—the La Push wolves.

Most of the animals knew about them. They weren't like normal wolves. The size of horses, they towered over other woodland animals and their howls made every creature grow silent. All the animals respected them, but would never, ever approach them.

Sam and Paul were the only two wolves out, one black wolf and one grey wolf. They only trotted, luckily not smelling any leeches.

Paul whined, wanting to head back home. It was Saturday night. The last thing he wanted to do was run around the woods with Sam. He could be such a stick in the mud sometimes.

Sam shut up him immediately, snapping his sharp teeth at the smaller wolf's grey ear.

_Can we please head back now? Please? _Paul couldn't believe he had to beg.

Sam could hear himself sigh in his thoughts. _We will in a few minutes. Everything's relatively quiet tonight…for once._

Paul shook his wolf head in disappointment. His paws ached. His stomach growled. Why couldn't Embry just take his shift like he'd promised? Ah, but no. The idiot just _had_ to go to his girlfriend's birthday party. Paul snorted. It's not like Embry had anything to prove to the girl. He obviously was head over heels for her since he was still seeing her even after he joined the pack. _Even after we told him to break up with her. _But no, he was too stubborn–too in love with the girl. He was almost convinced the girl was his imprint.

As Paul ranted, he felt Sam mentally nudge him.

_I know, I know, Sam! I'll shut up now. Jeez. I can't help that I hate broken promises._

_Would you listen to me for one second? I'm telling you to look down, you idiot. _Sam growled.

They both bent their heads down and saw a yellow shade. It was a muddy yellow backpack on the back of what looked like a body. Paul squinted his eyes as Sam moved forward to turn the body over. It was a girl. Her black hair looked brown in the thick mud, the waves and curls sticky and drenched from the cold rain. Her white shirt was stained with blood and mud, and her sweatpants were tattered, almost completely shredded. Bruises and cuts were littered over her skin. Sam's eyes stopped at one practically cut, but he'd hardly call it a cut. What he saw was a large gash on her neck. At first he thought he was healed, but he saw the bright red blood near it mixing with the brown mud. Meanwhile, Paul noticed three large claw marks near her collarbone.

Did a leech do this?

But most importantly, was the girl even alive?

_What the hell_, Paul thought in horror. _I thought this was gonna be a normal night, for once. _

_Suck it up and get changed. We're taking her back to Em's._

_To Emily's? What the fuck, Sam? Shouldn't we just take her to a hospital like normal people would?_

_In case you haven't learned, we're not exactly normal. Just do as I say. Plus, Emily knows what she's doing. She treats our wounds all the time._

Paul and Sam reached up to a nearby tree and pulled down a pair of clothes. In a matter of a few seconds, they were fully dressed from months of phasing again and again. When they both headed back Sam noticed something. An ID card was attached to the yellow backpack's zipper. Silently, as Paul watched in annoyance, Sam slid the bag of the girl's form and looked at the ID card.

_Sam Houston High School and Middle School_

"Obviously not from around here," Paul said bitterly from behind his alpha's shoulder.

"Quiet," Sam ordered firmly as he gazed back down to the card. Who was this girl?

_Name: Lilia Elizabeth Quintano _

_Student Number: 457145_

_Emergency Contact Number: (555) 234-1566_

That's all it read?

Sam sighed, completely confused. He had no idea who this girl was, where she came from. But he felt he had to help her. He couldn't just leave her lying on the ground half-dead. "Carry her for me, will you?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Sam shot a burning glare at Paul. "No, I'm not. Now do as I say or you'll have patrol at 6AM everyday for a week.

With a sigh, Paul picked up the girl—apparently her name was Lilia—with ease. Sam held onto the girl's backpack and two started to make their way out of the forest. The air had grown thick and smelled of metallic blood. The girl's dangling arm swung to and fro as Paul walked with her. She was completely unconscious. Paul thought she could've been dead from how hard and cold the skin on her face looked. Only the beat of her heart reminded him that he wasn't carrying a cold corpse. It sure felt like it though.

"What do you think happened?" Paul asked curiously.

Sam blinked, deep in thought. "I don't know. There are claw marks, but it doesn't look like a normal animal attack." His eyes darkened. The marks on her chest sent chills down his spine. All he could think of was what happened to Emily: a violent wolf attack. He shook his head, shuddering.

"It couldn't have been one of us though," Sam said in a grave voice. "Maybe she can tell us when she wakes up."

Paul nodded and sighed blissfully when he saw the distant light coming from Sam's place. Patrol was over. Finally.

* * *

"What happened to her?!" Emily cried out when she saw the body in Paul's arms, hauling a first aid kit from upstairs.

"We found her in the forest. Something must've attacked her," Sam explained as Paul placed the girl on the couch.

Emily's eyes widened. "You don't think the Cullens…"

"No, they're not stupid enough to just leave the girl there. Plus, there were no vampire scents in the woods." Sam sat down in a chair. "All we know is that she's not from here. I don't know where she came from or how she ended up in La Push of all places."

Brows knitted and hands trembling, Emily started cleaning to girl's wounds. She grimaced at the sight of the gash under her chin. "Oh, goodness," she hissed, imagining how a wound like that could have formed. She heard a groan fall out from the girl's cracked, bleeding lips. At least she was making noises now.

Sam stood there beside Paul watching, feeling useless. How can he help out? He glanced at the ID card in his hands and picked up the phone, dialing the number. Paul watched curiously as he did so. When he brought the phone to his ear he cursed. _The number you have reached has been—_

"It doesn't work," Sam muttered.

The two wolves looked up at the sound of another groan.

The girl started to blink and squirm in place, the bandage on her neck brushing against the couch's cushion. No one said anything until Emily grabbed the girl's hand.

"Do you know where you are?"

The girl gasped for air as she tried to sit up. She felt a thousand hot knives carve her up, and her muscles hiss in pain. She shook her head again.

"You're in La Push, Washington." Emily told her in a low voice, realizing how severe the situation was. The girl must not even know how she ended up here.

The room was silent now, the only sound being the fan above all of them and the girl's groans.

Emily gulped, wondering what to do. "I'm going to take you to the bathroom so you can wash yourself up, okay?"

The girl gave Emily a pained look, but in the girl's bloodshot eyes saw gratitude. With a weak smile and words of encouragement, she helped the girl up.

"This… isn't… a h-hospital," the girl murmured.

"You're in my house. But don't worry. I'll help you. You won't have to go to the hospital unless you really feel you need to, okay?"

In awe, Paul and Sam watched as Emily and the stranger entered the bathroom. They heard the shower start. How was it possible she could stand up? In that condition it would be impossible for any human being to stand up. Her legs were covered in blood that they knew came from the very gashes on her legs. Paul even swore he thought one her legs were broken when he picked her up before. It was deformed and swollen once, but now she was walking fine with Em's help.

Paul looked at his alpha, unsure of what to think.

"We'll find out soon," Sam said, as though he could still read his pack mate's thoughts.

* * *

Lilia came out the bathroom with Emily after about an hour. Paul and Sam were both asleep on the couch. Emily looked at the girl with a smile as she still hissed in pain. The girl looked completely different now. Her eyes were a deep shade of brown and her skin was the color of caramel. Emily braided the girl's long curls into a thick braid. The cuts on her skin still remained, but Emily could swear that there were few of them now somehow.

"Are you feeling better?"

Lilia nodded.

"You want something to eat?"

The girl's face paled at the question.

"You must not have had something to eat in a long time! You should eat up a little bit, just get some strength for your recovery." Emily rummaged through the cabinets, filled with cans and junk food. "You in the mood for something sweet or salty?" She looked back at her new houseguest.

Lilia wanted to say no thanks to the food, but her stomach was begging her otherwise, the static trembling of her limbs were praying for food. She _needed_ food. She couldn't eat in front of these people like she normally would though…

Emily smiled patiently. "How about some spaghetti?"

How in the world was she going to eat spaghetti?! In front of all these people… they would laugh or kick her out...

"Sure?"

Emily raised her eyebrows, but smiled nonetheless. "Alright! Do you want cheese with it?"

"No, thanks."

Lilia looked back at the couch and saw the two men sitting there. Her brows furrowed. Although they were in their human forms, she knew that they were wolves and that they were the ones that found her. She'd somehow ended up in a wolf pack's territory. But despite knowing how territorial packs could be, she was grateful.

"Don't worry, dear! Take a seat! Nothing's going to happen! You're safe now." Emily said as she slid the bowl of pasta onto the wooden table. "Come on, now, relax! Sit down."

She blinked as she sat.

Lilia did as she was told.

She always did.

She gazed at the fork beside the bowl. Tentatively, she grabbed it, her hands shaking violently. Emily watched from across the table, noticing the anxiety in the girl's eyes. Lilia brought the fork to the bowl, almost touching the pasta with it, before she dropped it, the fork clattering to the floor. Emily jumped at the sound. Lilia hands went to her face as she let out a muffled cry.

"I can't."

Emily furrowed her brows, bewildered.

* * *

"Do you know who we are?" Sam asked once he and Paul were awake.

Lilia tilted her head to the side, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Are you human, is what we what to know," Sam clarified. "It's like you've never used a fork before."

Lilia blushed. "I know how to use a fork…"

"Then what's the problem?" Sam said rather sternly. Emily shot him a scolding look.

"Well… I haven't been eating food for a while… cooked food, I mean."

Paul narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest. "What do you mean?"

"Uh, well, I've sort of been eating more… raw food." She sighed, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair. "I've been living in the woods in a while now… so, cooking meat isn't exactly an option."

Paul scrunched up his nose in disgust. She's been eating animals in the woods. Gross. "How did you not get sick?"

Lilia gave him a tired look. "I'm like you, of course. I just spend all my days in my wolf form."

_She's a werewolf._ Sam thought to himself. _That explains why her wounds are healing so fast… and why she could've travelled to La Push so on foot without so much of a problem._

"Where's your pack?" Sam asked.

Lilia's eyes darkened and her fists clenched. She looked down, full of grief. "They're dead."


	2. Chapter 2: Burnt Paws

Chapter 2: Burnt Paws

It was early in the morning. Emily's oatmeal was cooling down as she watched Sam read off a crinkled sheet of paper that he printed out before bed the night before. She watched with curiosity, wondering what it was that engrossed Sam so much.

"Anything new lately?"

Sam put down the paper and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "Uh, yeah. I did some research about other rumored wolf packs in the US in some of these weird, mythological websites."

"Did you by any chance find anything about Lilia?" Emily mumbled as she glanced at the girl sleeping in the living room.

Lilia slept nearby in the sofa. Her hair was softer and cleaner now, and she wore some of Emily's old clothes. Yet, a vibrant red still surrounded her wounds, worrying Emily very much. She was healing just fine last night. But the fiery tint circling the gashes on her dark skin made Emily's skin crawl. She brought a trembling spoonful of oatmeal to her mouth.

"Surprisingly, yes." He picked up the sheet of paper again and quickly skimmed his eyes across the printed words. "Lilia said something before she fell asleep last night about how she thought it was winter because of how cold it was. I told her it was summer. I thought maybe she hit her head or something. Then she said, 'your summer is colder than winter back at Texas.' Then it clicked in my head."

"Hmm, I didn't catch that last night," Emily murmured softly, pondering.

" Then I went on one of those weird mythology sites. There are a bunch of legends and myths there. I looked for werewolf stories from Texas. And according to this website, there are two wolf packs in Texas. There's one dominating the north. The other lies in the south. They'd been in conflict ever since the southern one moved there from somewhere around hundreds of years ago. The Northern one is always being attacked by the Southern one."

"That means Lilia must be from the North, right? It only makes sense; she said her pack was dead. The Southern werewolves must've killed them eventually in one of their raids. And somehow the girl ended up here in Washington after surviving."

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I need to ask her more questions, but I think it's best not to wake her for now. She probably needs her rest."

Emily nodded, watching the girl murmur something into her pillow.

Lilia sat in one of the chairs near the wooden table she remembered. Emily took a seat beside her as Sam sat in front of both of them with a crinkled piece of paper in his hands. Still rubbing the sleep in her eyes, Lilia yawned. Heavy, dark bags hung from her eyes. She fiddled with her fingers as Sam studied her listless expression.

"Em and I did some research online," he started, "and I read just a couple of things that interested me. There are two rivaling packs in Texas that are constantly at war. How true is this?" He looked at the girl closely. She didn't meet his eyes. All she glanced at was the wooden patterns of the table. But her silence was just as haunting as any glare or any word she could utter. He was never used to dealing with shy werewolves. Lilia sat calmly in her seat, her foot tapping slightly. She was quiet and looked harmless, but he could tell from the muscles rippling from limbs and the perpetual stony coldness glazing her eyes that she'd seen as much bloodshed as him. Her silence and stillness was almost ominous. It unsettled him, leaving him squirming in his seat as he studied her.

He looked away and at Emily, who also seemed quite moved by the girl's heavy silence.

"There used to be smaller packs…" Lilia murmured, making the two of them look at them. "They were eventually slaughtered though." She quickly glanced up at Sam's eyes, but then looked back down, as if she were scared to even look at him.

"You say your pack is dead right? Were they killed?"

She nodded just slightly.

"Can you tell us about it?"

Her dark eyes narrowed and she gulped back the growl that was tempting to rip through. She sat back and rested her shoulders against the seat, feeling the ache in her back dig dipper in her muscles as she did so. "What is there to say about? They were slaughtered. That's all."

"We learned there were a Northern pack and a Southern pack where you lived," Emily spoke up quietly.

Lilia glanced at her sharply, her mouth falling open in shock. "Yes. There were…"

"You you're from the Northern Pack, right?" Emily said in a rushed tone. "We—we read online that the Northern Pack is always in attack from the Southern one."

Lilia furrowed her brows in bewilderment and shook her head slowly. Emily sighed in disappointment and looked at Sam, who looked at his notes in confusion.

"So," he spoke up, "you're saying the Northern one isn't the weaker pack?" Maybe his research was incorrect. He wasn't surprised. How accurate can information about werewolf packs been on the Internet after all?

Lilia casually scratched the healing scar on her forehead. "No, you're right. They were the weaker pack once. I was from the Southern pack, so I know. Somehow one night they managed to sneak into our territory and attack us out of nowhere. We were the better pack, but they caught us off guard when we were all sleeping. You see, we all lived in the same neighborhood near the woods. So, it was the perfect layout for a sneak attack. They killed everyone from my pack…unless somebody else also escaped. I can't remember." She grimaced as a headache crawled into her head and the flashes of light behind her eyes.

"There's a chance some people in your pack might still be alive then?" Emily asked gently.

Lilia brought her hand to her head, feeling it was going to fall from how heavy it felt. She propped her elbows on the table and let out a loud groan from the pain radiating from her mind. She couldn't believe it. Her pack was gone and all that was left was ashes from that dreadful night. Her teeth chattered as the flames burning her home. She could feel some of those same flames licking and dancing on her arms as she screamed, as her screams melted with the screams of her friends and pack mates in the woods. She remembered seeing some of the Northern wolves storming through her backyard, grabbing one of the younger pups she trained just the day before and tearing him apart with their sharp jaws. Her eyes felt like they were burning and the blood seeping from the slashes on her knees reached her ankle.

"Lilia," Emily murmured carefully. "It's alright."

Lilia caught her breath slowly and lowered her trembling arms to her sides. "I don't know… I don't know if they're okay. I can't hear anything from them in my mind. But there's always a possibility I think." Lilia let out a shaky breath, feeling empty. She remembered the loud gossiping of the other she wolves and the constant wrestling of the younger wolf pups.

"How many were there in your pack before all this?" Emily nudged gently, hoping it wouldn't shake the girl too much. From across the table, Sam was petrified as he watched the young werewolf suffer from her flashbacks. He couldn't imagine losing his pack, especially to something as brutal as an attack. It was much like being orphaned, except much worse. The emotional bonds connecting her to her pack mates had been severed, leaving her with only fading memories. It was like losing a part of yourself, wondering if any of those memories once were a reality or if they were only mere ideas floating in your brain.

Lilia closed her eyes, her heartbeat slowing. Her jaw loosened and she choked back the pools of tears in her eyes. "Around thirty, I don't know. The younger ones weren't really considered a part of the pack. They could hardly control themselves from shifting in public."

Lilia leaned her head back against the sofa and closed her eyes. Seizing the opportunity, Emily seized Sam's arm urgently and brought him outside of the room into the hall. She knew that Lilia was able to hear their conversation, but knew it would be rude to talk about her in the same room.

"She needs to stay with us, Sam. She needs us," she said, feeling a tender protective nature come over her. Never before had Emily suffered from a trauma, she'd never known what it was like to lose someone you love to death. Yet, there was a voice in the back of her mind whispering to her what she had to do. And what she had to do was help this wolf. She saw the misery and grief in the girl's life, and she had to do something to tend to it.

Sam scratched his head in frustration. "I don't know. What if her pack finds her? What if they think that we're hurting her and they attack us? I feel like we're risking too much by just letting her in here. You know how territorial and aggressive wolves can be towards each other. They could easily misunderstand us."

Emily scowled, scoffing. "They'll understand! They're werewolves but they aren't actual wild animals, Sam. You of all people should know that. If they found out that we just sent her back to the woods to be eaten alive by whatever attacked her, they'd be just as mad."

Sam sighed, knowing that his fiancée was completely right. There was so much to risk. But he felt that when he came across her form in the forest, nearly dead, that was when he needlessly also taken up the responsibility to look after her until she was safe from whatever being attacked her, whether it was another foreign werewolf or a vampire or some other beast. He knew the pack could possibly dislike the idea, knowing there was a foreign wolf hiding in their territory. Then again, they could also like the idea too much. He knew how teenage boys got around girls.

"Fine, she can stay," he finally sputtered out nervously, wondering already if what he'd chosen was the best for everyone. "As long as she behaves herself and doesn't cause some war of some kind she can stay. She can leave once she finds her pack or decides to leave when she is safe."

Emily's hopeful gaze broke into a joyful smile and wrapped her arms around Sam into a tight, warm hug. She knew that he would say yes, but the disquiet look on his face as he deliberated silently made her stomach churn either way. After letting him go from the extremely tight, yet warm, hug, she whispered in a low, but thankful, voice:

"Thank you, Sam."

* * *

**A/N: I'll be trying to upload as much as possible, so most likely everyday until I get to where I left off before I deleted the story in my other account. Anyway, I would appreciate some **reviews** from some of you guys if you have time! It lets me know I'm not writing to the air. I just needed to tweak a few things from the backstory. I'm not sure if I'll be expanding all the other chapters I've written in terms of length, but I'll try to. Some might just stay at 1,000+ words, some might go over 2,000. I'm not sure. Thanks for reading the author's note, btw, haha.**


	3. Chapter 3: Humanoid

Chapter 3: Humanoid

Embry and the other wolves stood outside of Emily and Sam's place, leaning against the house's walls. At his feet were Quil and Jared sitting down, exhausted from patrol. Jacob and Paul stood near the door, occasionally knocking for permission to enter. Sam would always say to wait a second.

From outside, he could smell the freshly cooked burgers Emily probably had laying out for them. Just from breathing it in, his shriveled up stomach grumbled and roared.

Embry curiously looked through a small window and saw Sam near the table with a frustrated look on his face, his jaw clenched and his hands running through his hair. What a sight. Emily stood over him sternly with her small hands on her waist, scolding him. Embry couldn't help but snicker. Sam and her hardly ever fought, at least not in front of the pack. The two were practically the perfect couple. Always loving and warm. No wonder Leah got sick at just the sight of them. It _could_ get annoying at times.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Jacob mused.

"Who knows," Quil replied while tugging at some of the grass aimlessly. "I can't make out their exact words. I just know Emily's kind of mad, and Sam is just frustrated."

"Sam probably got mud on the floor again," Jared snickered. "You'd think he learn to stop doing."

"Well, I don't care. I just want them to hurry up. I'm starving over here. I didn't even have breakfast. I feel like I'm going to pass out," Quil muttered darkly.

"Don't be so dramatic," Jared laughed.

Paul rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure none of us had breakfast this morning, Quil."

He looked back inside the house again through the foggy window. Sam still sat in his seat with his head hanging down in defeat, and Emily held onto what looked like some kind of identification card. Maybe a driver's license? She waved it around as she yelled. "You made a promise, Sam! Keep it! Don't disappoint me!"

Jared chuckled, smirking villainously. "Sam really must've really screwed up." It wasn't everyday you see your alpha getting yelled at by his imprint. It could make anybody's day.

Moments later, the door opened and they rushed in, muttering "finally!" while shoving past each other. Jared's elbow somehow ended up in Embry's face, pushing him against the door edge. Embry's hands went to his nose. Jacob seemed to be clutching his gut as well after Paul elbowed it as well. Embry narrowed his eyes into a dark glower as he watched Jared practically jump into one of the seats and shove a cheeseburger into his abnormally big mouth. Growling and muttering curses under his breath, Embry made his way to the table, noticing the different assortments of burgers and sandwiches laid out on the table. His mouth watered, and he looked up at the sound of his name.

"Hey, Embry," said Emily with a radiant smile from the other side of the round, wooden table. "How are you doing?" She turned her head at the sound of Quil moaning as he munched on his burger. She rolled her eyes at the ketchup and mayo smeared across the boy's mouth.

"I'm alright. I'm surprisingly not that hungry anymore…" he lied smoothly.

Emily raised her eyebrows. "After seeing Quil eat, I'd be surprised if anyone can keep their appetite." She giggled blithely. "But you _must _be hungry. You guys didn't have breakfast, right? Do you want something different maybe? We have some leftovers from yesterday's spaghetti still…"

"No thanks, Em. I'll be fine." He gave her a dim smile.

In response, she gave him an unconvinced look, a playful smile still on her lips, until it twisted into a scowl when she heard Paul's loud laughing. She turned and groaned loudly. "JARED! NO! DO NOT EVEN TRY TO THROW THAT BUN AT QUIL! NO! I DID _NOT_ COOK THOSE FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH!"

"Aw, come on, Emily!"

"I mean it! And Jacob, what are you doing with Paul's plate? This isn't a playground, you know! Sam! Control your pack, please!"

Discreetly, Embry made his way out of the kitchen as he watched Emily smack Jared's head. For once, he didn't want to be around the pack. Their thoughts were a lot more annoying today than usual. He almost always hanged out with them. They were like his brothers. But, just like normal brothers, they sometimes grew incredibly irritating. Sometimes, he wished he didn't have to share his thoughts, his entire _life_, with them. At times, he wished he could keep secrets. He wished he didn't have to avoid thinking about something for fear of Paul snickering at him or Leah using it as blackmail later. That's how cruel they could be sometimes. Just knowing that running around the forest as a wolf with these wild people was costing him his relationship with his mom only made it worse. It was like being in a gang. That's what most people in La Push and Forks referred to the pack as anyway: a gang. That's what his mom called it when she yelled at him.

He thought of what happened this morning, his mom scolding him right after he got out of bed. It gave him a killer headache. Every morning, it was the same thing, the same words being roared in his ear. He'd hear them every time, but he also was forced to forget them right after. He couldn't dwell on how disappointed his mom was in him, how she wanted him to be an engineer or a doctor. Instead, she got a rebellious teenager who snuck out the majority of the time. The words would haunt him when he slept. They would always leave him breathless, each syllable being a different blow to his gut. _Tell me, when did you come home last night? At five or four? What the hell were you doing out that late at night? You were hanging out with Uley's little gang, weren't you? You can't tell me? Well, why not? I am your mother! You should be able to tell me anything that is happening in your mind. Instead, you block me out. _Then she would sigh, almost giving up for the morning. _Sometimes I wonder if things would be different if your father had stayed in the picture._

Sometimes Embry wondered the same thing. Would he be a better person? The thought made him want to scream. He never came to know his father. All he knew about the man was that he carried the shape shifting gene that he was _so _blessed to have. Embry would always forget that his father was probably closer than he thought. He probably lived on the reservation. Hell, the man probably passed by Embry when he walked to school as a kid, or when he helped his mom with groceries before he phased. But that was all his father was in his life: a mystery, a ghost that tortured his thoughts at night. The man was nothing but a stranger.

Embry groaned and sat down lazily on the lumpy burgundy recliner, resting his head back. He could feel all the tension and stress tangled up as knots in his back muscles. Everything was quiet. For a split second, he silently wished that he'd brought his music with him to listen. But in the midst of the silence, he heard a heartbeat, one too loud to be coming from another room. His eyes shot open. He looked around. Nobody was inside of the living room, except for himself. He furrowed his brows. Sam and Emily had no pets, no animals inside the house. He swore he heard slow breathing, as if someone were sleeping.

He craned his neck to the sofa that sat not too far away from him. His jaw relaxed. In it was a girl napping, her head resting on a green pillow with a soft teal blanket over her still body. He scanned her caramel colored skin, finding healing scars scattered over her cheeks. She had wavy long hair tied back into a thick braid. She had pink, supple lips with one scar running down one of its corners. Her eyes were closed shut in slumber.

"There you are," said Sam from right behind Embry. At the sound of his alpha's deep voice, Embry jolted in his place, frightened, and clutched his racing heart as he attempted to catch his breath. "I thought you would be with the others eating. I heard you during patrol complaining about not having breakfast."

Embry shrugged, his hands still shaking slightly. "I'm not all that hungry anymore."

"That's weird," Sam noted. His eyes darted over to the sleeping form on the couch. Realization hit him, and he dropped his head in frustration. With a sigh, he started. "That's Lilia. She had trouble sleeping last night, according to Emily. It seems she likes the sofa more than the guestroom. Personally, I prefer sleeping in a warm bed, you know."

Embry blinked. "Who is she?"

Sam clenched his jaw, his eyes scanning the room, as if he were searching for a viable answer. "She's… uh, Emily's mom's friend's daughter… if that makes sense." He pursed his lips for a shy moment. "It's kind of a long story. That's what Emily and I were talking about while you guys were waiting outside… whether we should keep her with us for a while or not."

Embry narrowed his eyes, puzzled. "Isn't it kind of weird having her stay her with the pack running around? Isn't it a bit risky?" Embry inquired.

"Eh, no, now that I think of it, not really," Sam replied nonchalantly as he got up, "I'm just gonna have what's left of breakfast. Uh, feel free to turn on the TV or something. Just try not to wake Lilia up."

A few seconds after Sam left, Embry reached for the remote and turned it on. He jumped at the loud blare that came from the first channel. He cursed under his breath as he quickly lowered the volume. The sound of a tired groan came from the sofa. Embry stiffened. Without a second thought, he placed the remote back onto the coffee table and looked over into the sofa. He saw the once sleeping form fidgeting in place beneath the blankets, stretching her legs and grousing into the pillow.

Sam was going to murder him.

The girl sat up, stretching her arms over her head. She opened her eyes, even though they were heavy and inflamed. Her black, wild waves were tousled and slightly frizzy. The bloodstained bandage below her jaw, Embry noticed, was swollen with what Embry presumed was the blood from the wound. Her dark brown eyes fell on him. She blinked several times and then scowled in confusion.

"Who are you?" she asked in a rasping voice.

But her voice seemed to vanish before they could reach Embry's ears. He stared at the girl in utter awe, his heart racing so fast in his chest he thought it would shatter. Looking at her, he couldn't help but feel he'd seen her before, that he'd known this stranger his whole life. Yet, the feeling that spread through his body all the way to the very tips of his fingers and toes when he met her intoxicating gaze felt completely foreign, but addictive. He couldn't seem to break eye contact with her. Looking away from her felt like letting go of somebody hand as they hung from the edge of a high cliff.

"Are you okay? Why are you not saying anything?" she questioned.

He shook himself out of his unfathomable trance, blinking several times. He felt as though his vision had been blurred before, before he saw her. Embry looked back up to her distrustful gaze as he laughed fretfully. "Oh, me? Yeah, uh, I'm fine! Never better, actually. I was just zoning out a little bit."

She nodded. "You must be a part of Sam's pa—"

"Hey, Embry!" shouted Paul from the entrance of the living room. "What're you doing here alone? Jacob said he's gonna take the food we all saved for you if you don't come over here an claim it…" His words started to fade when he saw Lilia sitting up in the sofa. The look on Embry's face was dark and full of exasperation. He wanted to get to know Lilia the moment he saw her, but Paul had to interrupt it with his usual obnoxiousness.

"Paul, I told you not to wake Lilia!" Emily cried out as she came heading into the living room, the clapping of her slippers growing louder as she came closer to them. "She hardly got any sleep last night, Paul, and the last thing I want if for you and the others to—" Emily paused when she saw the mystified girl sitting up with a pained and lost expression on her scarred face. The look on Lilia's face reminded him of that of a frightened child. Maybe she was shy? He couldn't help but feel deep contrition at knowing he'd disturbed her sleep. Now she had to deal with Paul and everybody else's crap.

"She's already up," Embry said plainly.

Eventually, all the other wolves in the house—Jacob, Quil, and Jared—appeared behind Paul and Emily, begging for a peek. Sam sighed loudly from behind all of them, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. He'd hoped that she could pass as one of Emily's distant relatives or friends. However, he knew now that keeping a white lie this big from his pack, especially after this spectacle, would be impossible.

"Can I talk to you guys in private, please?" he called out loudly and impatiently.

The wolves left the room together and went into the kitchen, Embry trailing behind them. Emily started to eat some of the scraps the boys had left behind, which they rarely did, and then left to her bedroom with a plate. Sam was the last to sit. The alpha crossed his arms over his chest and looked over at the wolves waiting for an explanation. It wasn't everyday that they found a girl sleeping in the living room.

"Her name is Lilia, and she's a werewolf like us," Sam said bluntly, not sure if there was any better way to say it. "And no, she's not related to any of us. I thought I could have her pass as Emily's friend's daughter or something in order to avoid any questions, but that didn't work out that well."

"She's a werewolf?" Quil asked.

"You mean she's like Leah?" Jared said in disgust. The rest of the pack grumbled under their breaths. "I didn't think there were more girls like her…" he added with a grimace. The name Leah had became synonymous with "grouchy, self-centered she-wolf" to the rest of the pack. Having two Leahs in the same town would be hell.

Sam growled subconsciously at the sound of his ex-girlfriend's name. "Yes, she's a female werewolf like Leah. I found her last night with Paul in the forest. It looked like she was attacked but we weren't sure by who. She said that she used to have a pack in Texas, but that their rival pack attacked them and for months she's been travelling as a lone wolf with no pack. She says the rest of her pack if most likely dead."

At the sound of this, Embry's heart sunk like a rock. He hadn't realized that the girl sleeping in the sofa beside him before had been so hurt. She'd seen horrors no girl her age should have to witness. No wonder she looked so shaken and fragile. And he'd just thought she was just some girl—some girl that seemed to have the power to captivate him with just as much as a unassuming glance. She was much more complicated than that though.

"Damn, that sucks for her…" Quil murmured.

Embry tried not to glare at him.

"We've got one problem though. I think it'll fade with time if we're lucky enough. She'd been travelling across the country in her wolf form so much that she's somewhat forgotten how to act like a regular human being. When she's in her human form, she acts different and I thought I would just warn you all. She doesn't like using normal eating utensils after hunting animals for months. She doesn't like using shoes or wearing thick clothing, and she doesn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time."

"Sounds a lot like Leah," Jared laughed.

Embry elbowed him, earning himself a puzzled look from his pack mate.

"I don't know, do you think it's safe she stays in here with Emily and you?" Jacob started, making Embry's blood boil and vision redden. "She sounds… weird. She sounds almost like a wild animal… She sounds dangerous, Sam."

Paul rolled his eyes and smirked. "Who cares? Have you actually seen her up close, Jake? She's hot."

A loud growl ripped through Embry's throat. He leaped at Paul, clutching onto the collar of his shirt. Embry's whole body quivered from anger. Sam hurried over to hold back Embry while Quil and Jacob pulled away Paul, who snarled at Embry, challenging him.

Everything Embry saw was red. All he could see in his head was his wolf form attacking Paul. How dare he talk about _her _like that? As if she was just another one of the girls he would once date and then dump after a few weeks? She was much more than that. He knew Paul was a jerk, but he didn't think he had the nerve to go after a girl as fragile as Lilia just to leave her more hurt afterwards. Embry was sick of his cruel games. He clenched his fists as he tried to advance toward Paul one more time, only to have Sam shove him to a side and grab him by his shoulders.

"Calm down, Embry," Sam ordered. "Don't do something you'll regret."

"Neither should Paul," Embry muttered, breathing in hollow gasps.

Paul chortled. "You're just mad because I got to get my hands on her body before you even met her."

"Shut up, Paul." Sam finally snapped at the hotheaded wolf. His own eyes dark with rage. "I told you to carry her for me. You didn't hook up with her. Stop provoking him."

Paul's eyes drifted off innocently. "Not yet I haven't."

"Don't even try!" Embry growled at Paul. He felt his muscles burning beneath his skin. If he looked down he wouldn't be surprised if he found smoke coming from his arms. His body was scorching, and his jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. He couldn't stand seeing that arrogant, sick smirk on Paul's face. He couldn't stand the thought of Paul even laying a finger on Lilia.

"What the hell is your problem?" Jared yelled at Embry, bewildered completely. He though Embry must be going mad. He looked like a bloodthirsty monster. "Why are you so angry? It's not like he's talking about Vivien. Lilia's not your girlfriend, dude."

"Embry," Sam said in a grave voice. He looked at Embry, worry and shock in his eyes. "Tell me it's not what I think."

Sam had seen this behavior before. It wasn't normal among all of the wolves. There was only one explanation as to why Embry was so protective over some girl he'd hardly spoken to, over some girl he'd only looked at in the eye for a few seconds.

"Embry, look at me. Did you…"

Embry's head snapped up. His eyes still bitter and cold. "Yes, I imprinted on her."

* * *

**A/N: Updated twice in one whole day! I'm quite proud of myself, haha. Vivien was who Embry was dating, and no I am not going to make a love triangle with Paul and Embry. That would just make everything more complicated and love triangles are kind of overdone. Also, poor Emily, always having to deal with the pack :3**

**Anyway, please leave some **reviews**! I'd love to hear your thoughts from new an old readers. **


	4. Chapter 4: Doubt

Chapter 4: Doubt

Two days had gone by, and Embry hadn't spoken a single word to his imprint, Lilia. It wasn't that he didn't want to. He was dying to talk to her, to get to know her, and hear her voice one more time. There was no doubt about it. But each time he laid eyes on her, all of the courage and bravery he'd collected the night before would fade away. When he'd see her, she'd be helping Emily with the dishes or stirring some of the food. Sometimes, she'd be sleeping in the guest room. Sam mentioned that she hardly slept in the night, but instead took several two to three hour naps throughout the day, like a newborn puppy would. At first, Embry thought this was normal. But then, the thought occurred to him: what if this was her subtle way of avoiding him? The other wolves would ask Embry during patrol if he'd somehow managed to piss her off. But that was impossible. He hadn't spoken more than a few words to the girl. He doubted he'd somehow insulted her.

He did wonder sometimes. Maybe, when he'd woken her up from her catnap two days ago, if she'd gotten angry with him for imprinting on her? She was a werewolf, just like him, so surely she knew what the dazed look in his eyes meant. Yet, she never approached him and actually didn't seem to show any signs of affection towards him, any sign that the imprinting wasn't just one-sided. When Sam imprinted on Emily, they connected immediately. Jared and Kim went on their first date the evening he'd imprinted after years of bickering in between classes at school. Quil and Claire were inseparable, as if they were brother and sister. Why was Lilia an exception to this pattern?

Embry _knew_ this was not a mistake though. All the previous crushes and girlfriends in his past seemed to vanish the moment Lilia's coffee brown eyes opened and met his. The constant desire he once had to be with Vivien every second of the day was dead. He couldn't even remember why he'd gotten with Vivien. Just the other day, he had to explain to her about his imprint. She was heartbroken, and so was Embry a little. But as soon as he got back from patrol a few hours later and saw Lilia, the fissure in his heart seemed to have molten into a healing patch. Every time he saw her, his arms and legs froze, his skin felt tighter around his bones, and his stomach lurched, as if urging him to finally speak with her. He couldn't help but stare in awe at the imaginary, yet beautiful, glow that radiated from her very being, shadowing her wherever she went, hypnotizing him.

That day, Embry was determined to bring this terrible enigma to an end. When he woke up from a restless two-hour long sleep that morning, he vowed to himself he would finally approach her, meet her, and hopefully get to know her. What was the worst that could happen to him? From what Emily had told him whenever Lilia was sleeping away, the girl was benevolent and humble, but quiet.

After an early morning gathering, the usual wolves met up at Sam's place for breakfast. The wolves all sat in the living room, huddled around the coffee table. Some sat cramped on the lumpy sofa, other in chairs, and a few on the ground. Paul and Leah fought over whether they should watch a college football game or a cheesy zombie TV show. In the midst of the uproar, Embry headed out of the living room unobtrusively. Embry knew that Lilia sat outside every morning on the last two or three steps of the patio. Emily told him this, knowing that he struggled with the kindling of his relationship with Lilia. Finally, after a few seconds, Embry walked out of the house and onto the patio, a refreshing gust of cool wind hitting his face.

Lilia sat placidly on the last steps, just like Emily had predicted. The girl wasn't looking at anything in particular, but her eyes seemed to be hooked on the picturesque scene before her. The colossal trees. The dark green leaves. The grey sky. The black birds in the sky soaring. Meanwhile, her chin rested on her hands and her elbows were propped up on her knees. Embry noticed immediately that she wore some of Emily's old clothes: an orange tank top and dark jeans. Rather tan wearing shoes or flip-flops, she wore only thin, snow-white ankle socks.

Hearing sudden noises coming from behind, Lilia turned around and saw Embry heading towards her. When both their dark eyes met after a few seconds of flat reticence, she waved her hand softly in the air at him. Taken aback, Embry waved his hand back, tentatively sitting down beside her. He watched her closely, but not too much, fearing that he would immediately alarm her with his curiosity. The warm breeze hitting her face blew several loose, soft curls back, exposing some of the healing scars below her ear. Her large eyes were dark, but abysmal, littered with buried secrets and cremated memories. She cast her eyes to the ground coyly, feeling his heavy gaze on her.

"Hi," he started bravely, feeling his heart jolt. "My name's Embry, Embry Call." He held out a hand.

Lilia's eyes connected with his halfheartedly. Fearing that she was being rude, she shook his hand briefly with her own. Veins of tingling lightning surged through Embry's hand, finding their way up his tense arm and to his heavy chest. "Lilia," she spoke.

"Nice to meet you," he responded with a warm smile.

Light glinted in her eyes, and she smiled back.

Side by side, the two sat together in blissful silence for a few shy minutes. Or perhaps they were minutes? Embry wasn't all too sure. All he could be sure of at the moment was that he was not at all accustomed to Lilia's quiet, serene demeanor. Usually the pack was loud and wild, especially when it was lunch or some other occasion that involves food. He thought he could talk to her without any problem, that immediately the two of them would hit it off just fine. He was wrong. But he wouldn't let one silent moment stop him. This was his imprint.

"So, what're you doing out here?" he asked finally, pursing his lips nervously.

Lilia gave a small shrug, a light smile still played on her lips. "Just trying to get some fresh air, I guess. My old back would always be outside in the woods. It was sometimes annoying with all the mosquitos, you know." Her smile faded.

Her old pack. She said it like she'd finally already accepted that her pack was a thing of the past. That they were all dead, gone, and never coming back. There was no hope that they were any other survivors. She was stuck living without them. She was now deserted and orphaned, like a lone wolf. A cloudy look returned to her eyes, one that she had throughout her entire stay while she worked quietly in the kitchen, ignoring some of the stares from the pack, and Paul's stupid comments at dinner. Up until Embry greeted her. For those short moments, Embry saw her eyes filled with a rare, yet exciting, light and candor. It was like seeing a candle finally lit aflame after years of sitting in a dark room.

"Do you miss them a lot?" Embry probed, immediately wishing that he hadn't touched on the subject. He should've just kept his big mouth shut. He looked up with curious but anxious eyes, hoping she wouldn't snap at him or walk away now. He cleared his throat. "Your old pack, I mean. Not the mosquitos…"

Lilia laughed. It was such a surreal sound, like the tingling of bells. It still held the same innocence and bubbliness of a child's laugh, however. Hearing it brought warmth to Embry heart, as if it'd been frozen for and her presence was the sun. For a second, he wondered how often she would laugh with her pack. How she must've been a carefree, loveable soul before her pack's death. Now she was frail.

She shook her head and gave him a mellow, calm smile. "I don't really know, actually. I was already hoping I could leave them before…"

Embry nodded. He tried to sympathize with her.

"I still hold them dear to my heart though. They helped me through a lot. They taught me how to fight, how to survive. But… I don't know. I sometimes got sick of them…"

Embry thought about his own pack. Paul was a pain in the ass; there was no doubt about it, with his sporadic temper and cruel jokes, now more than ever. Sam's orders were sometimes a heavy burden on his back. He'd lost his mother's trust because of how strict he could be with patrol. But he couldn't imagine life without them. They were his family—his brothers. The thought of ever losing them brought grief. He'd miss them in spite of how annoying they could be at times.

Nonetheless, Lilia seemed to have her doubts and resentments towards her own pack. How cruel could they have been to her before their demise? Sam said the other day that there were a lot of them, about twenty or thirty in her pack—a lot more than their pack, that's for sure. To make matters worse, female werewolves were extremely rare and treated like scum. How badly did they treat _Lilia?_

Embry thought all of this while watching her closely and tenderly. Her eyes were kind and heartwarming even with the pain behind them. The warmth on her peaceful face made him feel so comfortable, as if he'd known her his whole life. He noticed the loose curls tickling her jaw would make her growl occasionally before she tucked him behind her ear, and her feet would occasionally tap against the steps they rested on, her toes wiggling a little. Lastly, he noticed her pink lips. They were so soft and alluring. He swallowed hard, trying to shake the ardent thoughts from his mind. Now he understand why Jared and Sam reacted to their imprints the way they did. He wanted nothing more than to embrace her and—

"You think you've marked me. Just like your alpha marked Emily."

Embry frowned. "Marked?

Lilia sighed. "I think here you guys use the word 'imprint' or something along those lines. At least, that's what I heard your alpha use, and Paul, and everyone else."

Embry growled at the sound of Paul's name coming out of her lips. Luckily, it didn't seem to move her.

"You think you've imprinted on me, Embry, don't you?" she said with calm, but sad, eyes.

Under her piercing gaze, Embry didn't know how to respond to her question. Was she angry? Her expression was hard to read. All he knew was that she _knew_ what imprinting was. She just used a different term, but marking and imprinting were probably the same thing, right?

"Don't try to hide it. I can tell by the way you were looking at me," she added in a little more tersely, making Embry flinch from the whip of her sharp words.

A tired sigh escaped from her lips and her brow wrinkled, but Embry wasn't sure why. Did she not feeling the effects? Lilia ran a shaky hand through her curls and glared at the forest trees in front of her. Embry only stared at her, waiting for her to say anything that might give him a hint at what she was feeling, anything to know that everything between the two of them was going to be okay. Instead, she just shook her head, making Embry's heart feel weaker than usual, yet it continued to beat anxiously like an angry drum.

"Is everything alright, Lilia?" he asked timidly.

"No. My old pack warned me about this," she said in a soft voice, refusing to look into his brown eyes. "They warned me about these stories."

Warned?

"What do you mean?" Embry growled.

Brushing the twigs from her jeans and straightening out her top, she stood up from the steps. As he scrutinized her anxiously, Embry coped her movements. Patiently, he waited for any answer or movement that could answer the storm of questions clouding his mind.

Lilia gazed at him once more, her eyes stoic and cold as when he first met her. There was no longer much warmth or light reflecting in them, not like they were when he'd first grinned at her. There was only sadness and guilt.

"I'm sorry, but imprinting… is just a myth," she stated simply before turning and heading back into the house. Out of panic, Embry grabbed ahold of her upper arm, pulling her back to him. He felt her flinch under his touch, making him even more horrified. How his imprint reject her? Was this even possible?

"Are you crazy?" he exclaimed.

She shook her head, her eyes turning stony. "No. There's a reason why my pack was one of the strongest in America. We didn't believe in any of that stuff about destiny and true love and whatnot."

Embry only stared. This had to be some sort of a night—an imprint not believing in imprinting. It couldn't be possible! He knew it'd be difficult to bond with Lilia because of her murky past and her commitment to a different pack, but he didn't knew it'd be this hard. The idea of doubting imprinting never even seemed possible in Embry's mind. Not after seeing how loving Jared and Kim were, or Quil and Claire, or even Sam and Emily everyday. Imprinting was just as true a fact as gravity in his mind. For someone to even think it was nothing but garbage and know about the pack's existence was absurd.

Embry had always looked forward to the day he could meet his soul mate, the most important person in his life that he would live and die for. He'd always wonder how she'd look like, her hobbies, whether she'd be tall or short, or even be from around La Push. Never once did he wonder whether she would doubt imprinting. Lilia's rejection was like a stealthy knife being held to his neck from behind: completely unexpected and frightening.

Instead of breaking down or begging for her to explain what the hell was going on, Embry only laughed. He laughed bitterly in her face in disbelief. "You're telling me that you don't believe in love?"

She stiffened. "No. Just not imprinting," she answered warily.

"Wow." He shook his head, refusing to look into the eyes of the girl that only seconds ago he thought was an angel, a mysterious, timid angel that was hard to understand but was intriguing. Now, he knew she was no docile wolf.

"I'm sorry, Embry," she said in a low voice, laying a hand on his shoulder. At her touch, Embry's eyes snapped towards hers. The beauty that seemingly disappeared returned, catching Embry under a spell once again. The creases on his face melted as he turned towards Lilia again and gazed at her with gentle eyes. "I hope we can be friends, but I just don't… I just don't believe in… all of this."

He stepped away.

"I'm going to help Emily with the dishes if you don't mind."

Embry didn't know what to do, what to think. He felt like there was only one choice for him—one thing he'd have to do to win her heart.

He would just have to prove it was real.

**A/N: So, this is my third time rewriting this story... gah. I'm trying to upload literally as much as I can. Hopefully, you guys can tell. Anyway, leave what you guys think in the **reviews**! I'm dying to hear your thoughts, you guys. Come onnn! Why do you think Lilia's pack doesn't approve of imprinting? What do you think of Embry's breakup with his old girlfriend? Feel free to leave your predictions in the reviews as well.**


	5. Chapter 5: Safe

Chapter 5: Safe

The sun was setting. The wolves stood in the forest in their wolf forms. On the damp, muddy ground, there were a couple drops of dark blood clinging onto some strands of grass. Leah lied on the ground, a large gash on the side of her furry neck. A few feet away, Lilia stood on the ground, her fur a deep shade of mahogany. Blood dripped down her black, wet nose as she stared at the wounded wolf in front of her. Her paws were a pale white, but were covered in brown mud. Leah writhed on the floor.

_Who does she think she is? _Leah growled.

_That's enough _Sam answered. _You shouldn't have provoked her, Leah. We didn't know whether she had a controllable temper._

_Well, now we know_, she replied in a low voice.

Lilia glanced around. The dark, vicious look in her eyes seemed to be vanishing. Embry heard her a few whimpers leave her slightly open mouth. The furry ears on the wolf's head were pulled back and her eyes were wide with shock and fear. She crouched near to the ground, slowly backing away from the scene as if she couldn't believe her own eyes. She'd attacked Leah and caused the massive lesion that stained Leah's light, almost white, grey fur.

Bravely, Embry approached her, his heart beating surprisingly slow. When she noticed his paws padding toward her, she instantly yelped in terror and began to back away more. Embry stopped in his tracks. She truly thought he was going to _hurt _her. A wave of sorrow hit him. Cautiously, he too started to back away, not out of fear, however. Somehow, he needed to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her. With him, she would be safe.

Her ears were still pulled timorously against her head, but she started to stand a little straighter, and the fear and her eyes started to dwindle. Instead, he saw uncertainty and curiosity. Her paws still shuffled uncomfortably and her legs trembled under her weight. She licked her nose, like any ordinary dog would, finding her mouth to be dry and her mouth tasting of bitter metal. A grimace crept on her face.

_What the hell are you doing now, Embry? _Leah spoke apathetically in Embry's mind. _This is no time to be playing charades. _

_Helping her._

_Helping her? I'm the one that's on the ground! _She growled.

Embry disregarded her and the other relentless voices cramped in the back of his thoughts. After months of getting used to, he could finally block them out without much trouble. Standing in the forest, he focused on what was important, and that was Lilia. He turned and looked up one of the huge trees that stood on the forest floor. On one of the crooked, grey branches hung a black tank top and some blue basketball shorts.

_Go ahead, Embry_, he heard Sam say, their thoughts were still intertwined, much like the large branches of the tree above him.

Embry nodded at the black, large wolf that stood at the center of the scene. In a matter of a few seconds, he managed to fetch the clothes from the surprising thick branch. A few bright green leaves managed to fall with the clothes, slowly cascading. A few landed on Lilia's head. Alarmed, she jumped in her place and shook her coat. She growled when she saw one of the leaves fall from her head. Embry felt a chuckle rumble in his wolf throat, a human laugh struggling to come out. He held the pair of clothes in between his teeth, careful not to puncture the fabric with his razor sharp teeth, and slowly made his way to his imprint.

He almost wished their thoughts were interwoven as well. Just to comfort her.

The she wolf's ears were now standing up straight, two mahogany colored upside-down v's on her head. Her dark brown eyes watched as he placed the pair of clothes onto the ground on top of a patch of dry grass and a few broken twigs, his eyes not leaving hers. Quickly, she understood the message and grabbed the crinkled clothes. Before she turned around, she looked up at Embry, their heads leveled with each other. Embry was lightly taller, but both were strong and powerful wolves. With the clothes still in her mouth, Lilia let her teeth show in the sunlight and then ran off to go change. Embry could've sworn that it was a cheeky smile in the form of a friendly, wolfy snarl.

_What'd you say that made her so pissed, Leah? _Quil asked.

_The truth, _Leah said in a cool tone. _That even after Embry broke up with Vivien out of nowhere for _her _ass, she still managed to be selfish enough to reject him. _

Embry's stomach churned as he felt a growl rumble in his throat, like the rumbling of a volcano before erupting. He could feel his claws digging into the soft, moist earth beneath him. _You were in no position to be telling her that, Leah. This is only between her and me. Stay out of it._

_Oh, please! I was doing you a favor! Did you see the look on her face? It was of pure guilt and shame, Embry. Maybe now she'll consider dating you after I've made her see how big of a bitch she can be. _

Sam sighed.

_She isn't a bitch, Leah. She isn't even from here. She was attacked. Her pack is dead, and who knows what other traumas might've happened. She doesn't know any of us. I can't just expect her to start dating me the moment I introduce myself to her. She's a human being… or, you know. She's a person! She isn't forced to date me just because I imprinted on her. You should know that. _Embry spoke in a surprisingly calm, even voice.

Embry turned around, looking back to where Lilia ran off. She must be almost done changing, if not already through, and on her way back to Emily's house. He gritted his sharp teeth and turned his head back to Sam, ignoring all of the snide comments Paul was basically muttering in his ear from where he stood. Sam's black form nodded one more time.

_You can go, Embry_.

* * *

Fully dressed and in his human form, Embry made his way into Emily's house. It was all quiet except for the sound of ice crashing into a sink. Embry stepped tentatively into the kitchen, where he caught Lilia, her nose bleeding and her lips cracked, standing in front of Emily. One of her eyes was a deep shade of red, almost purple. The sight of the bright bruise made Embry's skin crawl. It looked painful even to blink with it marred on her skin. He didn't know Leah could tear someone up that bad. The last time he'd seen a fight that bad was when Paul and Jared got in a fight over losing a vampire's trail. He almost didn't recognize Jared's face from how puffy and red it was.

"Lilia?" Embry called out sheepishly.

She looked up, her mouth opening slightly in surprise. Emily handed her a Ziploc bag full of ice. Lilia flinched at the cold touch against her palm, but brought it to her throbbing head. Her arms quivered from adrenaline that still coursed through her veins. A few scratches were engraved on the outside of her arm, some of them a sour pink and some of them a healing white. A few twigs stuck out of her wild hair, and mud smudged her left cheekbone. In her hand was a crumpled bloodied tissue. Embry noticed the stream of blood trickling from her nose had dried. Somehow, she still managed to give him a weak grin.

"Hi," she breathed.

He smiled back as Emily walked out of the room.

"I'm sorry about all that," Lilia murmured, knowing well that Embry could still hear her loud and clear. "I didn't mean for it to get that out of hand. I didn't mean to shift."

Embry shrugged and stepped closer to her. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Leah has a habit of getting on everyone's nerves around here. She just has a lot of problems of her own to deal with."

Lilia's smiled sadly, fiddling with the bloodied tissue in her hands. "She's right though, you know. I shouldn't have… stayed here, I guess. I'll only end up toying with your emotions. It's not good for either one of us."

"Do you know what an imprint is, Lilia?" Embry said in a new voice.

Lilia blinked and narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I have an idea."

"Well, it's not just about claiming a mate, you know," he explained, leaning against the wall.

She tilted her head and furrowed her black eyebrows. She moved the already melted bag of ice away from her scorching skin. The bump against her jaw had faded, and the crack in her lip had a scab over it. Nonetheless, she could still taste a hint of blood in her mouth. Her eyes stung each time she blinked, and her head felt as heavy as a boulder. Her jaw hurt from grinding her teeth so much. But she no longer felt like her ribs were shattered, nor her muscles all strained. "What do you mean?"

"It's not just a… romantic bond, or any of that kind of stuff. An imprint can be someone you just want to be around, a really close friend. Or, they can be like a little brother or sister you want to protect. It's not always this… romantic partnership."

She didn't say anything.

"You don't need to apologize for anything, Lilia. I can't force you to be anything… serious, with me. You don't have to be anything you don't want to be. I can't force you to be with me. And, even if I could, I don't think I would. It wouldn't be right for either of us, but especially not for you." He sighed calmly, feeling a burden of guilt being lifted from his chest. For days he couldn't sleep because of his conversation with Lilia. He couldn't believe how harsh he'd been to her. The mere memories of that day rattled his mind, and each fiber of every memory made only more remorse seep from his mind. She didn't owe him anything. But he acted like a possessive monster. "I shouldn't have been so persistent that day. I'm sorry."

Taking in his compassionate words, Lilia bowed her head slightly and smiled softly, but it didn't quite reach her bloodshot eyes. "It's all right, Embry. You don't have to worry. You're forgiven." She sniffled a little bit, but then gasped. Embry moved closer to her at the sound.

She brought a small hand to her nose and a trail of blood began running down her lips from it. Nervously, she touched her upper lip and observed the bright red liquid staining the tips her fingers. "I don't understand," she mumbled to herself.

"Something's got to be wrong, then…" he told her as he handed her a paper towel.

Eyes still pink, she crumped up the paper and held it against her nose. Embry watched her with worry, brushing back some of the hair against her face. She looked up, and saw the fear contorted on her imprint's face. Immediately, she swallowed, feeling some of the blood go down her throat, and shook her head at him. "No, don't worry. I'm fine."

"Your nose shouldn't be bleeding _again_," he said.

"Something probably got complicated during the healing process. Maybe another small blood vessel broke or something. Nothing to worry about." She lifted the blood paper towel and saw that the bleeding had stopped. With a small hum, she smiled and raised an eyebrow at Embry. "See? I told you I was fine." She threw the bloodied tissue into the trashcan, sighing softly.

Embry grabbed her wrist, but pulled away in shock when she swatted it away with her other hand. Her cheeks were flushed in a rosy color of embarrassment. "Sorry," she laughed nervously. "It's a bad habit of mine." Once more, Embry gently grabbed a hold of her, by her hand this time, and led her to the bathroom.

"What're you doing?" Lilia asked.

"I'm going to clean your wounds up. The cuts on your arms and legs aren't healing."

Lilia frowned and looked down only to see he was right. The slashes on her legs were still oozing blood and the ones on her arms were a violent red. She felt her heart drop in her chest. They should all be healed into a few white scars against her caramel skin. Instead, the cuts clung to her skin, refusing to disappear.

Embry opened one of the cabinets in the bathroom, and took out a white first aid kit with a red sticker the shape of a plus sign on the side. He told her to seat down on the toilet as he knelt down in front of her. Opening the white box, he took out a brown bottle of rubbing alcohol and a plastic bag filled with cotton balls. Lilia watched with wonder and curiosity. She didn't remember the last time she'd seen rubbing alcohol. Almost always, her wounds would heal. The only time she remembered seeing it was when she was a kid and one of her young, clumsy classmates managed to scrape his knees in the playground.

"It might sting a little bit, just so you know," Embry said in a hushed voice.

Lilia nodded.

He applied the alcohol to her cuts. At first, she flinched and hissed in pain, but later, her muscles relaxed and she sat calmly. She watched his careful work. He didn't apply too much pressure on the slashes, and he didn't growl each time she would occasionally flinch. He was patient and tender. For a brief moment, she smiled as he moved up to her arms. His hands were always warm and occasionally tickled her skin. She was surprised he didn't notice her goose bumps on her skin. Or that he didn't say anything about it. A wave of tingling lightning passed through her body, in a rush from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She shivered and licked her lips. Embry looked up at her, worried.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about it."

He moved up to her face and tenderly dabbed on the scrape on one of her cheeks. He reached over for a tissue, wet it, and cleaned her face of the dry mud. She looked down, not wanting to look into his eyes. Each time she did, she felt like her limbs had frozen.

Moments later, he started to put away the first aid kit. He looked so natural with it, almost as if he used it only a daily basis. It made her wonder. "You're a pretty good healer for a werewolf," she commented with a grin. "How do you know so much?"

"It's not so much, really. I was a human once, before I joined Sam's pack. I'd get hurt a lot. Before I was a human I'd need bandages and medicines just as much as any other clumsy human being. Plus, my mom's a nurse. She'd practically recite these things to me as a kid."

"Was it nice being human?" Lilia asked. Embry looked down at her, noticing pools of sorrow and remorse building up in her eyes.

"Weren't you once human?"

Lilia shook her head slowly. "No. I shifted when I was six. All I remember as a human is playing with wolves and some pups."

Embry remembered the misery he went through when he first phased. He felt like someone set him on fire and ripped his insides apart. During those days of agony, he thought he lied on his deathbed, and the fact that Sam Uley was in his house retelling him old legends of the tribe was anything but comforting. In his sleep, he would scream and bawl from the pain, but would have no memory of it the day later. A grimace would always find its way on his face remembering those days before he shifted. He was a teenager when that happened. He couldn't imagine a six-year-old girl going through that.

"I guess it was nice. Less stress…" he murmured.

A sudden thought illuminated in Embry's head at that moment. No wonder Lilia was such a fierce fighter. Leah would be half-dead if Sam and the others hadn't intervened. Even with their help, she was already bleeding a lot on the forest ground. It was abnormal to see such fierce fighting. But, from the age of six, Lilia trained to do just that. She lived her life dedicated to ripping apart vampires and maybe even killing other werewolves from other packs. The thought sent rumbling chills down his spine. She fought just as good, if not better, than Sam or Paul. She could probably rip apart any opponent without even thinking about the abrasion on her skin or the blood dribbling down her chin. He saw the look in her eyes when she fought Leah. There was ferocity and defiance, no remorse or hesitance. After a fight, wounds like these were almost a normal sight to her. They didn't seem to bother her so much. Not as much as they bothered Embry at least.

"Thank you… for helping me with everything," Lilia told him as she headed out of the bathroom, this time shooting him a candid smile that showed off the glow in her eyes that made his stomach flutter with butterflies. He couldn't help but stare at her radiance, radiance so powerful that even stars in the night sky would be jealous.

"Any time, Lilia."

She paused for a second, and tilted her head to the side, much like a wolf. As if deciphering his words, she blinked and then nodded before making her way back to her bedroom.

* * *

**A/N: So, Lilia is slowly starting to open up to Embry. She does feel some of the effects of the imprinting, but doesn't exactly want to acknowledge them. Anyway, what do you guys think? Why were some of Lilia's wounds not healing? Do you like how Embry & Lilia's friendship is starting to blossom? Who else in the pack would you like to see Lilia befriend? Or any other Twilight character? I'd love to hear your thoughts and predictions in the **reviews**! Don't be shy! c:**

**-Mars**


	6. Chapter 6: Unfolded

Chapter 6: Unfolded

Lilia sat on the couch one late evening. The bruise staining her eye had faded to a faint yellow color, and the cuts splattered across her body previously were now nothing but old scabs and waning scars. Nonetheless, she insisted on staying as far away as possible from the pack, especially Leah and Embry. The last thing she wanted to do was stir up more trouble and violence. She'd already done enough of that.

Of course, Emily urged her to forget the past and start a new friendship with Sam's pack. Each time Lilia would settle for a short sci-fi novel or a cheesy TV show over bonding with the rowdy pack, she would click her tongue and shoot Lilia a reproachful look from across the room. But no death glare of hers would move Lilia from her spot. She became a stoic and taciturn she wolf, as if someone long ago had clipped her tongue and she'd lost the gift of speech.

After the pack enjoyed their loud and messy dinner, they all went their separate ways. Jacob said he planned on spending time with Bella Swan, which for some strange reasons earned him snickers from the rest of the pack. A few said they were going to see some 3D action movie that had an attractive actress starring in it as the main love interest, while others decided to run errands for their families or catch up on their sleep.

The mere fact that they could do all this amazed Lilia, as she watched them from behind her book as they stated their plans excitedly. In her pack, all the wolves were constantly training. They were always training, training, training—nothing more or less. That is, unless they were allowed to fight actual enemies. But vampires were rare in Texas those days, and the thought of a werewolf from the enemy pack coming to their border was absurd. If even one wolf were to ask the alpha if they could go watch a movie with their girlfriends or catch up in their sleep, he would surely attack them on the spot as a punishment for their weakness.

Lilia felt something build up inside of her as she listened to the cheerful boys. It was something odd, something that she never experienced before. For the first time in her life, she wished she had been born in La Push to a pair of loving parents… not just a grouchy old woman who smoked cigarettes while watching soap operas. She wished she had the freedom thee boys lived in, not in fear of what her alpha could do to her for showing up late to a pack meeting.

Emily waved her hand goodbye from the door as the wolves scampered out of the house with excitement. She shook her head lightheartedly and headed upstairs, mumbling to herself about how good a nap sounded to her. Lilia stayed in the living room with her nearly finished novel in her hand. As she reclined on the sofa, loosening the knots in her spine, she heard the sound of plates clanking behind her. Out of some curiosity and a hint of annoyance, she looked back to see one of the werewolves still standing in the kitchen, cursing to himself about inelegantly dropping three plates at once into the sink.

For the first time in several days, Lilia giggled. A smile spread on her lips as she saw the werewolf look up at her with rosy cheeks and bashful eyes. He was younger than the other wolves, but was still burly and intimidating. But the look in his eyes still held onto the innocence that most children lost the moment they shifted into wolves.

"Oh, hi!" he said cheerfully. "I didn't know you were still there. I hope I didn't bother you too much."

"It's fine," Lilia said. "How come you're not with the others?"

He shrugged. "I showed up kind of late to dinner and thought I'd skip the whole movie idea. I'm not a big fan of 3D anyway. It gives me headaches."

"What's your name?" she asked curiously.

Sighing blissfully, he plopped down beside her on the couch, a pleased smile still lingering on his lips from his large dinner. "Oh, my name's Seth. Seth Clearwater. And you're Lilia, right?"

Lilia's eyes widened at this. "Clearwater? You're Leah Clearwater's sister?"

Seth suddenly bolted upright, as if ready to give a long speech. "We don't look anything alike do we? See! I told Jared that we looked nothing alike at all, but he says we could pass as twins. But I think he's just messing with me. He does that a lot."

She shook her head. "No, I don't see the resemblance at all. You're so full of joy, and she... well… she gave me a black eye a few days ago."

He sucked in sharply. "Yeah I heard about that. She tends to get into a lot of arguments. Don't worry about it. If she's gotten in a fight with you it probably just means you're normal."

Lilia nodded understandingly. To Lilia, Leah at first seemed like an interesting girl. When she heard there was a she wolf in Sam's pack, Lilia was ecstatic. But the excitement she had to finally have a female friend other than Emily died as soon as Leah called her "a pathetic brat".

"So… your pack was from Texas!" Seth continued. "How was it like?"

Lilia shrugged. "To be honest, I didn't quite like it. Too strict… too many punishments. Plus, all the boys were pigs."

Seth cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "How?"

"Well, you guys have that whole imprinting thing, so you all know who you're supposed to end up with, right? Well, we sort of had that belief. But no one really paid attention to it. We all thought that the person we should end up with should be someone we see as strong, someone who you'd create a powerful offspring with eventually."

Seth grimaced.

"So, I guess that's why Leah attacked me. Because I told Embry that I didn't want to date him since I'm not all that familiar with imprinting. It's not that I don't like him. He seems really, really nice, but… it's so foreign to me."

"I understand," Seth replied. "So… did you have a mate in your old pack. Someone who you'd… make strong offspr—"

"Of course not!" Lilia cut him off sharply. "Like I said, all the boys were rude pigs. A few of them showed interest in me. Heck, even the alpha had his eye on me the moment his mate mysteriously died. But I wasn't interested in any of them. I mean, why should I? They just wanted me to give birth to their baby wolf puppy, and then they would just forget about me. I don't hate myself enough to do that."

Seth eyes saddened. "I had no idea. And this whole time the pack was just thinking you were prude or whatever. Damn."

Lilia's mouth dropped, but she quickly closed it as her skin started to heat up with anger. "Prude? They thought I was prude? They had no idea the kind of crap I would have to put up with in my old pack. And they think I'm prude? After that selfish bastard proposed to me as if I were a piece of meat hanging on a branch for him to snatch, they think that because I don't want to date the first guy I see here that I'm prude?"

Seth panicked. "I don't think you're prude though! Embry doesn't! Embry defended you the whole time! It was mostly Paul who kept on wondering why you hadn't jumped into bed with him yet. But Embry told him to be quiet about it!" Seth sputtered quickly as Lilia threw her book across the room out of rage. "Look, you have every right to be mad. But don't take it out on Embry, please."

Her breath growing heavy and quick, Lilia glanced at Seth. She saw in his eyes that his intentions were genuine and that he told nothing but the truth. Her muscles untightened and her eyes softened. Choking back a scream of frustration—or was it a sob? —she buried her hands in her hands and brought her knees to her chest.

"You said someone proposed to you?" Seth asked quietly, almost as if he were fearful of whatever words Lilia could utter. "Is that why you didn't accept Embry?"

Lilia shook her head. "That's not why. It was a long time ago. He proposed. I said no. He got angry. End of story. I'd rather not talk about it. It doesn't mean I'm prude. It has nothing to do with imprinting! Just an old story I guess. One that I'd rather forget."

"But Lilia, can't you tell us? At least tell me?"

"No. But you can tell your pack to screw themselves for thinking I'm just a prude brat from Texas. They have no right to think that of me, and I won't let them. It's none of their business."

Lilia got up and collected her crinkled book from the ground, noticing the new creases in the pages. Oh, great. She glanced back up at Seth's confused eyes and sighed. "It was nice meeting you, Seth, but I think I'm going to head on to bed. Maybe finish my book."

Seth frowned. "Okay, if that's what you want, Lilia. Sleep well."

Lilia gave him another one of her feeble smiles before she headed out of the living room. But before she left, she turned around and looked at him from the doorway. She swallowed the bile rising up in her throat. Breathing in deeply and spreading her lungs open, she spoke once more to the younger werewolf. She wished nothing more but to have things get better, not worse.

"Please don't tell Embry about any of this."

Seth looked at her at once, noticing the look helplessness tightening around her once peaceful and blissful face.

"Please."

* * *

**A/N: So this chapter was not rewritten. It was what I'd originally uploaded before I had to delete the story. So, it's a lot shorter than the other I've uploaded... What do you guys think? I'm leaving it up to a vote for you guys. Should I just upload the original chapters and get completely actualized or rewrite each chapter individually without making them longer? I really hope you guys take the time to actually read the author's notes... Feel free to leave your vote / thoughts in the reviews. **


	7. Chapter 7: Pebbles

Chapter 7: Pebbles

Emily's birthday arrived quicker than Lilia thought it would. That chilly morning, Lilia lazily woke up at 6AM sharp and slid a large, deep chocolate cake into the oven for baking. It was the recipe her mother had taught her before she retired from her position in the wolf pack. Of course, there was no greater baker than Lilia's mother by far, and her cake couldn't possibly be as flawless and delectable as the slices she'd eat as a small child, but it was worth a shot. For Emily, after all that she'd done for her, she'd bake a thousand chocolate cakes.

When Emily woke, the two exchanged one or two warm hugs as Emily complimented Lilia's freshly baked cake. Dressed in thick coats and bulky scarves, the two headed to a nearby diner. It was filled with only plump senior citizens who squinted to read the menu and drowsy high school students who drowned their pancakes with syrup. The wallpaper was greying and peeling off the walls, and splotches of old coffee and sticky syrup still stained some of the booths. The two girls decided to choose one of the cleaner booths, wiping away some of the spilt orange juice from the surface with a napkin. Emily grinned in excitement, as if she were about to ride a roller coaster.

"I know it looks sort of dirty and messy, but the food is _so_ good here. Trust me." Emily opened one of the sticky laminated menus and scanned her eyes down it. "The French toast tastes kind of funky, but the waffles are to die for! On the other hand, I'm kind of in the mood for an omelet.

Lilia nodded as her eyes darted rapidly over the menu. Could she just get _any_ dishes she wanted, even though Emily was paying? Maybe just a few blueberry pancakes would do the job. Of course, Lilia would get hungry again after a while, but she didn't want to pig out in public. At least the other wolves back at Emily's understood why she ate so ravenously. They all ate like that. But any passerby would probably think she was either a glutton or hadn't eaten in days. A part of her begged her to order the omelet _and_ the chocolate chip pancakes. She shook her head to herself.

"I think I'll just have the blueberry pancakes… with extra syrup," Lilia croaked, feeling her stomach grumble, sipping on her orange juice.

Emily's eyes brightened. "Good choice!" she exclaimed as she closed her menu, wiping the sticky dry syrup from her hands, a grimace on her face. "Sam really likes the pancakes here too. His favorite is the one with the whip cream and the strawberries. Most of the guys like them too. Well, anybody with taste buds would—"

A pebble hit the glass window to Lilia's left, making the two girls turn their heads and look out the window. All they could see was the damp, black road and the thick trees across the street. There were not children giggling from a corner with more pebbles in their hands, nor were there any piggish men booming with laughter with drinks in their hands. It was as if the freezing morning air had thrown the small, grey pebble at the foggy window. Maybe even a phantom. But it was in possible. All they could see was the bristling trees and the damp grass across from them.

Emily frowned and looked at Lilia whose eyes were still glued at the scene outside. "That's weird. Maybe it was just some animal? A squirrel maybe?" she spoke buoyantly while smiling weakly.

Lilia gritted her teeth as she looked out the window, feeling a sudden gust of cold run down her body. She shivered. "Maybe," murmured Lilia, and looked away. Staring at the table, she blinked several times in attempt to forget the strange yet suspicious phenomenon that just occurred before her tired eyes. A pebble hitting a window—that was too familiar. Could it have been what she thought? No…no, that was impossible. She was overthinking things. Emily was right. It was just some squirrel or some other annoying little woodland creature disturbing them.

Nothing more… nothing less.

Once Emily blew out her birthday candles, Lilia sat outside of the house with her paper plate and piece of chocolate cake on her lap. The wolves were all crammed inside the house, most of them talking and others pigging out on food and Lilia's chocolate cake. That was no surprise. Lilia normally would've done the same any other time. But, for some reason an incessant churn in her stomach made her not crave for the same meat and sweets that she once did. After the pebble incident that morning, she just didn't feel quite as normal, quite as tranquil. Now there was a storm raging in her brain. She couldn't stop thinking.

Earlier that day as Lilia helped Emily open her family's presents that arrived in the mail, another pebble hit her bedroom window. The two had paused for a moment, and Lilia felt her fingers grow numb and the air thicken in her lungs, leaving her to breathe through heavy gasps. Emily dismissed it as another thoughtless squirrel causing trouble, not noticing the pale look in the she wolf's face across from her. She even joked, and said that the squirrel probably got a crush on Lilia and followed her home from the diner. Normally, Lilia would laugh, maybe even retaliate with another joke.

But the joke only made Lilia's nerves surge wildly through her arms and legs. What Emily didn't know was that as she went back to tearing apart more wrapping paper, Lilia saw a pair of light brown, almost honey colored, eyes gaping at her from the darkness of the woods. Lilia rubbed her eyes, seeing at first only two specks of gold glinting from the shadows, but then realized that those eyes were too familiar. Almost as familiar as the pebbles and the erratic beating of her weak heart.

Some heavy footsteps headed toward her as a mellow voice said, "Hey, Emily said you baked this cake?" Then there was some chewing.

Lilia glanced up and saw Embry standing there with a plate in his hand, a fork in the other, and two great slices of cake plopped on his plate, weighing it down. For a moment, Lilia feared it would break through the thin, paper plate. A joyful grin was still visible on his face despite all the cake he had shoved in his mouth moments ago. He even had a little bit of chocolate frosting on the corner of his mouth.

Lilia nodded, a smile sneaking it's way slyly onto her face as Embry took a seat beside her.

He raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Well, it's really good! How'd you learn to bake like that? I don't think even Emily can bake this well, and you've tasted her cookies."

Lilia's smile widened even more, a rosy blush appearing upon on her cheeks. "My mom taught me. She'd always bake for me when I was a kid," she replied.

Embry wolfed down the last bits and crumbs of his cake, sighing blissfully as he did so. "Well, I'm glad she did." Embry grinned, but noticed the look of sadness swelled up in his imprints eyes despite her beaming smile. He wrapped a warm hand around her, pulling her in closer. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing really," Lilia mumbled, her burning cheek lying against his already warm sweater.

Embry frowned, not pulling away. "Obviously, there's something wrong. Come on, you can tell me. Is it because I brought up your mom? I'm sorry."

"No, no!" she answered. "I was just worrying… it was something stupid. You'll laugh."

"Laugh? No, I don't think so. If you're worrying about it, I don't think I'll laugh at it."

Lilia took in a deep breath, rubbing her hands together for warmth. As she breathed out, her eyes wandered around, landing occasionally on an old tree, sometimes on one of the flowers nearby, or on the puddle a few feet in front of them. "Alright, well… Emily and I went to a diner for breakfast, and a pebble hit the window. It scared us, and I guess we thought it was a squirrel."

Embry raised a dark eyebrow and stifled a cheeky laugh that was begging to escape his throat. His eyes sparkled mischievously, making Lilia scowl and hit his arm halfheartedly. "Hey, you said you wouldn't laugh at it!" she exclaimed in horror, and then looked down at the ground, licking her lips nervously. "See, I told you it was stupid."

Embry shook his head in alarm, the abrupt desire to laugh disappearing in a flash. His eyebrows furrowed and he grabbed her hand softly, intertwining their fingers together. "No, it's not stupid. I promise. I swear, I won't laugh at you." He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb.

She looked back up, a sheepish but reluctant look on her face that shined in the pale moonlight. "Anyway, the same thing happened at Emily's house. She was opening her parents' gifts and a pebble hit the window. No one was there either time. It didn't make sense. Emily forgot about it immediately, but I noticed a pair of eyes looking at me from the forest. Since then I couldn't forget about it. Emily's forgotten, but it's been eating at me in the back of my head."

"A pair of eyes?" Embry said in a grave voice, leaning closer. His head tilted to a side like that of a confused puppy. "How… how did they look like?"

"Light brown. Narrowed, as if they were angry." Lilia massaged her temples, shaking her head. She simply couldn't believe it. She should've been happy to see a pair of familiar eyes. For days now, she begged for a small piece of familiarity, something from her old pack and old life, but now it only made her hands tremble.

Embry thought for a moment, his grip on Lilia tightening protectively. Neither of them noticed seemed to notice it. He searched Lilia's eyes for any answers, any hints. "Did you recognize the eyes? Did they look familiar?" he asked cautiously. The flicker of joy once present in his eyes vanished as his worries worsened.

Lilia nodded, her lips trembling.

His eyes narrowed. "Well, whose eyes were they, Lilia?"

She swallowed hard, shaking her head in denial.

"My alpha's."

* * *

**A/N: Ok, so I'll be uploading my old chapters instead of rewriting them completely. I'll maybe tweak a few things I might not had liked before. It might take me a while to get all of the rest (13 of them, goodness gracious) uploaded. Please, any new readers, feel free to leave your thoughts in the **reviews**. I'd love to hear from all of my readers, not just my old ones!**


	8. Chapter 8: Changes

**A/N: For some reason when I first updated this chapter, the html and codes and whatever got messed up from transferring my writing from Word to the Doc Manager. Weird. I'm so, so sorry about that. Hopefully, it's alright now.**

Chapter 8: Changes

Lilia dropped the large box of chocolate donuts on the table along with a crinkled twenty-dollar bill. Some of the lights in the small store flickered while flies buzzed around the bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Across the grimy counter, the plump old woman pursed her bright red lips and glared up at Lilia from behind her thick glasses. She ran a veiny hand through her grey hair, sighing.

"Anything else?" she asked in a tired voice.

Lilia shook her head no.

As she listened to the loud clinking and clanking of the cash register, she looked down at the small television beside it. A woman dressed in a black trench coat and a thick yellow scarf spoke into a microphone. She clung hastily to the bright scarf while standing in front of what looked like a car with a large dent, as if some large animal had been rammed against it.

"It sure is cold tonight. God, I hate winter," the clerk said to herself as she changed the channel to a black and white soap opera featuring a pair of young, naïve lover yelling at each other. The girl with light blonde hair stomped away from the man, who punched the door she'd just slammed in his face. Lilia shivered at the scene.

Oddly enough, Lilia agreed with the clerk. She wasn't used to the weather in Washington at all. Her whole life she lived in the scorching heat of the south. One year, she was lucky enough to touch the thin layer of snow in the north of Texas during a long "camping" trip with her pack. As a young wolf, she fell in love with the fluffy, cool clouds that her small paws would clomp against in the North. She would dream of creating elaborate snowmen and castles, like she would feebly try to do during a hot day in a sandy beach. Her small creations would always crumble, however.

Now, snow and slush would surround her everyday. At times, she felt the snow suffocating her and grabbing onto her legs like quick stand, preparing to swallow her whole. In the beginning, the snow didn't bother her. It didn't feel cold against her skin nor did it make her fingers go numb. It was just like living in feathery rainclouds. She wouldn't even mind sleeping in it sometimes (of course, Emily would object to the ridiculous idea). But now her skin would shiver and crawl each time she left the warmth of Emily's toasty home. Late at night, she slept with four quilts on and two pairs of socks, and early in the morning she was armored with several old coats and scarves. Sometimes her scarves would even go up to the top of nose, showing only her eyes watering against the sharp, biting wind.

The strange sensations almost scared her. She never felt the cold before. The feeling of cold wind stroking along her body would place her into utter shock. No normal werewolf she knew felt this sort of chill, nor were they affected by the cold so greatly. Frost would find its way into the inside of her boots and her lungs burned when she breathed in what felt like freezing snowflakes. She naively feared that her placid tears would freeze into icicles hanging from her frosted eyelashes. It wasn't right. Something was not right.

The sound of the woman clearing her guttery throat brought Lilia out of her thoughts. With the box of chocolate donuts in her hands, Lilia left the convenience store. She felt a gust of freezing wind push her back and stabbing her frail skin as she opened the door. A small bell rang, signaling the clerk that she was leaving. The woman didn't care, however. Her sad, wistful eyes were glued to the grainy television screen.

Entering the car parked just outside the small store, she let out a breath of relief as soon as felt the car's heater cloak her with an invisible blanket of warmth and comfort. Lilia slipped off the purple beanie on her head and pushed down her scarf so it no longer covered her nose and mouth. She licked her dry lips. Beside her, Embry raised an eyebrow and took the package of donuts away from her lap, placing them in the backseat behind both of them.

He looked back at her, and saw her still shaking with an alarmed expression. She stared at the windshield with a glossed look in her eyes. Dozens of layers of wool and cotton covered her now bulky figure. The breath from her lips came out in warm puffs of fog above her rubbing hands. Her wild curls had a few specks of snowflakes crowning her head even though she'd worn a beanie, and her usually dark caramel color skin was now a dismal shade of pale honey. Without hesitation, she curled up into a trembling ball on the passenger seat, like a wolf curling up for a nap.

"You all right?" asked Embry.

"How can you live in this weather?" she said through chattering teeth.

"We're werewolves. It's not supposed to bother us… but for some reason, it bothers you." He frowned, pondering for a short moment before leaning closer to her. Her shivering ceased for a while. Maybe it was from his own heat radiating from his body. "Have you always felt this cold here?"

"A first? No."

That wasn't normal… to change body temperature all of a sudden. He touched her neck tentatively with the back of his hand, and noticed it was just as cold as the frost-coated car window next to him. Strange. Maybe she was catching some rare werewolf flu of some sort, except it made her skin cold… not hot.

He stared, bewildered. "Do… did you notice anything else weird? Another symptom?"

Lilia's eyes widened as she froze. Anxiously, she turned away, not wanting Embry to look at her or her now burning hot cheeks, and looked outside the frosty window. Embry watched her skeptically, fearing what she hid from his knowledge, before he gently grabbed ahold of her shivering shoulders and pulled her back to his view. He looked deep into her shameful eyes, trying to show all the sincerity and kindness he could muster in his heart.

"What is it, Lilia?"

She looked down at her damp gloved fingers. The snow that'd stuck to the fabric had melted. "It's nothing."

"Then you should be able to tell me what it is. What is it?" he urged.  
Lilia looked back up to his warm chocolate eyes. Somehow by simply glancing at them for a mere second, all her previous inhibitions had melted away with the flecks of snow on her scruffy coat. Nonetheless, her hardy timidity refused to thaw under his stare.

"If you insist," she thought to herself.

"I… well… it's more of a girl thing…"

"What is it?" he said, softer this time. Barely a whisper.

Lilia shot him a dirty look but sighed reluctantly. "You know… female werewolves aren't able to have children most of the time. They're able to get pregnant occasionally, and by occasionally I mean only four to five times a year. We're infertile a lot part of time… our reproductive systems are kind of slow…"

Embry gaped, his eyes blinking a she waited for an answer.

"So… we don't get the conventional monthly visits…"

"Oh!" he exclaimed as he loosened his grip on her shoulders.

"But… well… you know… wait, no you don't, what am I saying?" she snarled at herself angrily. Swiftly, she looked back up to her imprint and felt her freshly kindled anger cool down. "I've been getting those visits for a while now… despite my supernatural abilities."

Embry nodded stiffly, his face growing as red as Lilia's scarf. His eyes scanned all around the car, his lips pursed. "Well, at least that means you're not, you know, pregnant," he said weakly with a cheesy grin on his face. "Right?"

She couldn't help but chuckle a little at his resilient and heartfelt optimism. "I don't really have to worry about that. But it also means something's wrong with me. Do you remember when I got into that fight with Leah?"

"Yeah, of course I remember, but what does that have to do with you getting your pe—"

Before he could finish, she hot him a stony look that seemed to cast his lips into a spell, not allowing him to utter another word. Shoulders hunched, he waited for her to start speaking.

"My wounds didn't heal afterwards all that well, even with your help. It took forever. It took me almost as long as it would take for any ordinary human. Now my body temperature is dropping to a normal human's temperature. Something's not right. I can feel it." She crossed her arms over her chest, but at first had trouble doing so from all the layers covered her body.

The look of distress printed on his imprint's face made the wolf inside of him stir protectively. Seeing her worries and fear, he wanted nothing more than to embrace the girl in a tight hold and never let her go. But he was lucky enough to even be sitting in the same car as her. The wounds not healing had worried them that day, but he quickly had forgotten about them, and although he hadn't known about the girl's body temperature dropping before, that too made him feel restless. It made him feel jumpy, and he just couldn't sit still. The same kind of jumpiness one would feel when searching for a lost item. He needed to find an answer, an explanation as to why Lilia was changing so rapidly and radically. He needed to find the lost answers.

Lilia looked back at him, and the frightened pout that was once on her face vanished. It quickly formed into a warm smile, one that sent warmth throughout Embry's entire body.

"But," she said as she grabbed his hand. "Let's not worry about it right now."

Embry nodded, his heart beating faster than usual.

"We have a movie to watch over at your house and a box of chocolate donuts to eat."

Embry grinned back at her, loving the feeling of her hand in his, before starting the car.

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**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, you guys! It's so nice to know you guys are liking this story so far, especially from all the new readers! I think the next chapter will be a flashback, just fyi. It'll be more about Lilia's past. Hope you guys are pumped for that.**


	9. Chapter 9: Bruises

**A/N: I recall saying in the first chapter that this story would contain some themes having to do with ****abuse**** and ****violence****. If any of that may ****trigger**** or disturb you, I suggest you reconsider reading this chapter and perhaps this story. The last thing I want is for any of my readers to be triggered from my writing. If you're fine with these themes, continue reading if you please!**

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Chapter 9: Bruises

_2 years ago_

Lilia's wolf form sprinted through the woods, her paws pounding against the ground as her mind raced with her. She listened to the incessant crunching of the hot, dry leaves below her and the loud pounding of her panicking heart. Each beat reminded her to keep moving and not to stop. She'd woken up late that morning. The sun had already risen from its slumber, and the night sky no longer concealed the wolves with it's cool darkness at the pack meeting.

The new alpha would more than likely punish her, especially if all the rumors about the wolf were true.

Her paws skidded to a quick stop as she arrived at the place of the meeting, a small patch of plain land in the middle of the woods with no trees and no bushes… a perfect place for dozens of rowdy werewolves to fight and quarrel about common pack issues without accidentally knocking down a tree like they usually would. In the center was a large grey rock where the alpha wolf would stand during meetings, towering over all the other wolves. Lilia expected to see her pack brothers to be in their wolf forms, circling the great rock while yapping at each other about nonsense. Instead, each individual wolf stared at her maroon colored wolf form while standing on his or her two human feet.

Feeling crushed under their heavy stares, Lilia whimpered. Her white paws shifted in place gracelessly.

Shiloh, the second-in-command wolf of the pack, sighed irritably as his eyes glided over Lilia's form, before crossing his veiny arms over his chest. His eyes were narrowed into two spiteful slits, full of hatred and disgust. "Of course, you forget to attend the meeting before sunrise _and_ you forgot that we were supposed to show up in our human forms. Why am I not surprised?" He shook his head, biting his lip hard, as if wishing it were Lilia's neck instead.

_That's ridiculous_, Lilia thought in horror. _We never, ever show up in human form!_

Shiloh glowered at her, plotting how he would punish the girl. Last week, they'd punished a younger she wolf by making her run laps around the whole city until her legs collapsed under her. Could he do that? No, that would take much too much time. He wanted it to be quick and sharp, like the stroke of a whip, or the slash of a knife.

"Go ahead and change, before I make your punishment even worse than I have planned," Shiloh growled and tossed over at her a bundle of clothes.

With the clothes in between her teeth, Lilia hid behind a large tree, knowing how perverse some of the other male wolves could be, and put them on hurriedly, her hands shaking as she grasped each article of clothing. First, it was a shapeless burgundy shirt and a pair of what seemed like one of the guys' black basketball shorts. Lilia would've preferred to stay in her wolf form, feeling the breeze pass through her fur, but she had no choice. Timidly, she slowly stepped out from behind the tree, mentally reciting the apology she had prepared in a matter of a few seconds while changing. She opened her mouth to start speaking, and hoped that all of them would listen with all the sympathy and compassion they could muster…

Instead, she found herself with her back to the ground and Shiloh's piercing, dark eyes glaring down at her, his bare foot clamping tightly against her throat and crushing her windpipe. Lilia's eyes widened, pleading for forgiveness, and her legs buckled underneath her. Struggling for breath, she could only whimper and gag, struggling for breath. Her shaking hand reached up to Shiloh's ankle, trying to push it away, but his heavy foot wouldn't move.

"You've been reckless, Lilia," Shiloh breathed in her face. He reeked of raw meat and cigarettes. "How are you going to find yourself a proper mate if you just continue being so goddamn rebellious?" His voice was sweet, but his words were bitter.

"I… I…" she choked, tears forming behind her eyes.

He stepped his foot off of her neck, ignoring the gasps coming from Lilia's mouth, and grabbed her throat instead with his meat hand. He pulled her up by her neck, only to push her back to the ground where she was on all fours, before kicking her ribs with his foot. She cried out in pain, thus receiving many annoyed glances and hearing unimpressed scoffs from her pack brothers and sisters. The higher-ranking wolves always told them that the more they cry during their punishment, the longer they would be punished. Easier said than done.

"Now, tell us why you've arrived to late, dear Lilia," he growled to the writhing girl.

Lilia breathed in sharply before trying to sit up. "What do you mean 'why'?"

Shiloh shook his head, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "Wrong answer, Lilia." He kicked her ribs once more and for a second Lilia thought she heard several cracks. Groaning, she collapsed on the ground again, the itchy strands of grass grazing against her flushed cheeks. Hot, white pain shot through her body from her ribs to her neck. The pain itself paralyzed her arms and legs. She couldn't move at all. It hurt too much. All she could do was let her trembling fingers fumble with the hot grass, eventually gripping onto it as he kicked her aching back. Her knuckles turned white.

"Let me make it easier for you, hm? What were you doing that made you show up so late to this meeting, Lilia? And, a word of advice: don't answer my questions with more questions," he reproached. "Only a child would do that, and you are no child."

"Sleeping," she croaked, her eyes now damp with hot tears. "I was sleeping at home."

She heard a cynical chuckle. Shiloh took a handful of her thick hair, pulling it sharply. Lilia cried out as she was pulled up, her knees still planted on the grass, but her arms hanging at her sides. "Ah, ok! You were sleeping. So what happened to your alarm clock, Lilia? Was it sleeping as well?"

"I…" She pondered as he tightened his grip on her curls. Her listless mother was supposed to wake up her up that morning, but she claimed to have been doing chores. In reality, the whole time, she watched old films on the television while smoking half a pack of cigarettes. The living room was foggy with smoke by the time Lilia woke up. But if she told Shiloh the truth, her mother would be punished, perhaps even in a worse way since she was a retired she wolf. She imagined her mother screaming in agony as Shiloh tortured her. Lilia shook her head to herself. She wouldn't be able to live with the guilt following her mother's ordeal.

"I pressed the snooze button," she lied feebly. "I didn't get a lot of sleeping last night, really. I was busy." She quickly regretted what had just spilled from her anxious, cracked lips. "Busy…uh… watching television."

Shiloh snarled loudly, making some of the other wolves flinch. "Bullshit!" he roared and seized Lilia by her shirt's collar, bringing her face to his. She gasped at his darkened features and grotesque scowl. "You little tramp… You were sleeping around with the other she wolves' mates, weren't you? I heard you younger ones have been doing that a lot lately instead of sleeping in your own homes. I should have known." He raised his fist and slammed it against Lilia's face.

Once more, she collapsed to the ground and her bloodshot, swollen eyes stung, hot, acidic tears streaming down her raw cheeks. He raised his fist again and again several times, each time colliding with her stinging, broken skin and making her weep and scream in agony… in weakness. She could feel the hot, sticky blood on her face drying already after minutes of kicking and punching and yelling.

His fist rose one last time. Lilia's eyes squinted up at it, her vision blurred and breaths uneven. His fist blocked the sun, like the moon during an eclipse, letting only a few faint rays of light escape its edges. She braced herself, warm crimson liquid already forming small rivulets down her neck.

Another hand stopped the fist from colliding. Lilia looked up, surprised to not have felt any impact. What she saw astonished her. Roan, the new alpha, had his hand gripped tightly onto the second-in-command's wrist. He pulled it away from Lilia's face as he glowered at Shiloh in utter disdain.

"That's enough," she heard him say, her ears ringing to the beach of her frightened heart.

"Who are you to tell me to stop?!" Shiloh bellowed furiously. "You of all people!"

Roan remained calm. "I'm your alpha, and I am telling you to stop. Lilia has learned her lesson. I'd say she already learned her lesson fifteen punches ago."

Feet shuffled and some wolves muttered bitterly.

Shiloh's eyes were red with rage and blood thirst. "Ever since you got chosen as alpha, you've been nothing but a pain to us all! You've just slept with more girls and beat up more guys. You don't deserve this position. Finley would've never allowed this. I don't see _why_ he chose _you_."

Lilia's bloodshot eyes noticed a copper hand outstretched in front of her. Roan stood in front of her with an unreadable expression on his face. He neither frowned nor smiled. Maybe he wanted to get a good punch out of her. Maybe she'd puke from how heard he'd punch her stomach. Maybe she'd cough up blood if he were lucky.

"Take it," he ordered, and she did as she was told. Her shaking hand grabbed onto his warm one.

He looked down at Lilia who clung onto a nearby tree, feeling that her bones had melted underneath her muscles. "I know why you overslept," she heard Roan say to her. "You were playing with the younger wolves in the woods since their mothers were off doing who knows what. I saw you. No need to make excuses."

Lilia's eyes widened. _Oh, no._ He was going to punish her too.

"Next time, please don't. I'd hate to see what happened to Opal happen to you too. We can't afford to lose anymore she wolves in this pack."

Lilia nodded hurriedly, feeling a rush of euphoria and relief run through her weak, aching body. Never before had she been so happy to have Roan as her alpha. "I promise I won't."

Shiloh gasped in outrage from behind Roan, his fists balling up into fists and his teeth chattering from anger. "You're just gonna let her go like that?! SHE WAS UP PAST CURFEW! For that I would break her in two! I would make sure you wouldn't be able to move for days."

Roan scrutinized the second-in-command's shaking form, noticing how his round pink cheeks shook from his anger, before shooting him a smirk and snaking an arm around Lilia's swaying form. "Good thing you're not alpha."

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**A/N: This is indeed a flashback of when Lilia was in her old pack. Roan was elected alpha at the time when her previous alpha, Finley, had passed away. Roan seems really nice right now, I know, but he won't be for long, just so you know. And, yes, he is the alpha that is following her right now. Next chapter will be a continuation of this flashback. Just think of all this as Lilia's way of telling Embry about her past and what it was like at her old pack while they are at his house eating the donuts they bought last chapter! Anyway, thank you for your reviews in the previous chapters!Feel free to leave thoughts and whatnot! Love to hear what you guys think.**

**Also, if you had trouble reading Ch. 8 because of some code/html issues, I think I fixed it. Sorry about that.**


	10. Chapter 10: A ghost

Chapter 10: A Ghost

_2 years ago_

Lilia gazed at herself in the dirty mirror. All that was left of her injuries were a few cracked ribs and a yellowing bruise on her cheek. Luckily, she healed throughout the day and didn't have to run patrol after lunch, thanks to her alpha's sudden forgiveness. Perhaps having Roan as her alpha wouldn't be as bad as she'd initially thought it'd be, despite the many rumors circulating of him sleeping around, and apparently hurting, some of the girls during his hushed affairs. But then again, the pack was always known for throwing around outlandish rumors, and Roan becoming alpha after Finley's untimely death earned him many dirty looks from the older wolves. Some of them were willing to do anything to make Roan look weak and unsuited for his position as alpha.

Feeling more fatigued than usual, Lilia headed to her bed. Sighing softly, she wrapped herself with her blanket and reached over to flick the lights off. As she lied in bed, she felt her tight muscles loosen and her clenched jaw relax. She hadn't realized how tense she'd been the whole day. The soreness forming around her strained muscles at first bothered her, but eventually she felt herself quickly fall into slumber's hands. Her heavy head lied on her light blue pillow, and she slept a dreamless sleep for just a few minutes.

That was when she heard a sudden clang.

Her burning eyes shot open, and she quickly sat up in her bed, looking around her room for the slightest sign of an intruder, or any devious pack brother pranking her. Instead, she only found the usual darkness of in her room. The white walls were the same, and everything remained untouched.

Another clang.

Frantically, her eyes darted to the source of the sound. The widow. Out of curiosity, she stepped out of bed and headed to her window, opening it quietly. Down below, she found Roan, out of all people, throwing a pebble at her window once more. Lilia gasped, seeing the pebble heading towards her, and quickly ducked. Once the pebble landed on her carpet with a thud, she stood back up and placed her hands on he window's edge.

"Oops," she heard Roan say to himself with a mischievous snicker.

"What are you doing here?" Lilia hissed from her bedroom as Roan started to climb the moss-covered wall before jumping into her bedroom swiftly, not breaking a sweat in the process. He stood in front of her as she backed away slightly. She frowned, seeing he was shirtless, meaning he'd been wandering around. "Aren't you out past curfew?" Lilia asked bitterly. The whole curfew rule was stupid.

"Yeah, but I'm alpha, so it's not like I'm going to punish myself for breaking the rules," he said with a snort as he made himself comfortable and sat down on her bed. "Anyway, I came to apologize to you about what happened earlier. Shiloh gets a little too heated sometimes. It's a bad habit of his, I'm sure you know. But don't worry. He'll learn his place soon. I'll make sure of it." He shot her a grin, revealing his pearly white teeth.

Lilia scoffed to herself. "Yeah, okay." She hoped he didn't expect to hear her forgive him. She was grateful, but didn't feel like talking to him. He confused her. "I'd like to go to bed now, if you don't mind." She pursed her lips into a thin line and crossed her arms over her chest, patient.

"Sounds tempting," purred Roan as he reclined on her bed, his back against the wall behind the messy bed.

"I don't have time for your crap. Now go away," Lilia sneered, pointing sharply her index finger to the window. "Before I throw you out myself."

"No need for the feistiness, Lilia," he shot back with guile shining in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. "But I still need to speak to you about something rather important, so I'd ask for you to sit down."

Reluctantly, she sat down near her desk and looked at him again. "What do you wanna talk about?"

"It has to do with Opal," he said bluntly.

She froze, her cheeks flushing. "Oh."

"Well, sort of." He stood up and leaned against the wall as he watched Lilia carefully. "You know, ever since Opal died… two months ago, I've had all these silly she-wolves run up to me, practically begging me to consider them as a potential mate now that Opal is out of the picture. Now, that I'm alpha, it's gotten worse. It's never normal for an alpha to not have a mate, you know? It's considered odd in most packs. But I understand those naïve she-wolves. Who wouldn't want to be an alpha's mate? An alpha's mate is like Hera to Zeus. She's queen of the gods as well, you know. Just as powerful, just as magnificent. To become an alpha's mate would grant someone with an unbelievable amount of power in a pack. Could you imagine? Having every she-wolf envy you and having every other wolf around your finger?"

Lilia shrugged, eyeing him from the corner of her eyes. She hated talking about alphas and mates. The whole hierarchy made by the pack made her wish she wasn't a wolf sometimes. It felt like being a servant in an ancient empire. It seemed unfair and primitive. It only made men greedier. "I guess some are just willing to do anything for power," she answered him. "Personally, I think it's a little sad that they're willing to go so far."

Roan nodded. "Yes, I guess that's true. Some of them are not best suited for power either. But I do need to find a mate. It's important for me as an alpha. The other males will think I'm weak if I don't. But, at the same time, I don't want to just settle for any she-wolf just because I need one. I want to choose the right one, one who is truly suited for that amount of power, one who I'm sure would make strong children with me."

Pondering for a moment, Lilia leaned back against her chair and looked up at the ceiling. "Hmm...well, Annalisa is pretty sturdy looking. She seems to fit your criteria," Lilia thought out loud about the she-wolf who was one of the fastest she-wolves in the whole pack. Lilia thought of the girl's long, silky black hair that cascaded to her hips and her muscular wolf form. Many of the other she-wolves were jealous of her and the attention the younger male wolves gave her.

Roan chuckled. "Maybe, but she's too… naïve, and she's already got a mate, you know that. It's Adam, you remember him, right? He always hangs out with the night patrol guys." He grinned at her when the saw realization dawn on her face.

"I forgot… she doesn't talk to him much," she murmured to herself, glancing out of her window nervously, realizing only the moon's faint light illuminated her room. Its glow hit her bruised face, allowing it to be visible in the thick darkness of her bedroom.

"You see, most of the girls in this pack already have mates if you think long and hard about it. Which is good really. It means the pack is progressing."

He pushed himself off the wall and stepped closer to Lilia. When he was closer to her, he towered over her sitting form near her desk. Lilia felt a long shiver run down the nooks of her spine. Frantically, she reached over to her desk lamp and turned it on, fearing what could happen to her in the dark. She felt smaller and smaller the longer his golden eyes bore into her being.

"And that's when I realized that _you_ don't have a mate yet, Lilia," he mumbled, gently taking one of Lilia's loose curls between his fingers, ignoring the girl's feeble, skeptical glare. Her hands trembled on her lap. "And you also seem to fit this 'criteria' I have, as you call it."

Lilia looked down, her veins ice-cold.

"You're a great fighter, intelligent. You know when to open your mouth and when not to. No to mention your physique isn't a problem either…" He grabbed Lilia's hands; she flinched at his heated touch. His eyes were filled with desire and lust, and above all, ambition and greed.

"No." She gritted her teeth as she leapt away from her seat and backed away from him, only making him step closer to her each time she moved away. She couldn't escape him. His chest would always be a few mere inches away from hers, and his hands finding their way to her arms.

"Don't be so scared. I'll guide you along the way," he breathed on her neck. "It won't be too bad."

She scowled, feeling fury and disgust melting away the frozen fear stuck on the walls of her veins. Her blood coursed with anger and determination. She wouldn't be held down; it didn't matter to her that he was her alpha. She was only a young girl. She couldn't stand the hierarchy of her pack. She wanted to soar and progress, not become a measly little housewife for an alpha. She didn't care about being the Hera to his Zeus.

Without thinking, she pushed him away till his back hit the bookcase at the other side of the room. "No. I don't want to," she said in a grave voice.

He snarled, lifting his hand to strike her face until she braced herself against the wall with her trembling hands held high over her face. Seeing her curled up calmed his wolf. He dropped his hand to his side and instead used his other one to grab her by the chin and turn her face to look at him. The wolf inside of him still growled with rage, and his eyes were dark and clouded with bitterness.

"I'm afraid you have no choice."

Lilia snapped. "Of course I have a choice. Every she-wolf has a choice when it comes to accepting a wolf as a mate or not."

"Not in all cases." He shook his head in faux disappointment with a sly, victorious smirk on his lips. "If an alpha wants a she-wolf as his mate, it's an alpha's order. It's impossible to say no."

Lilia huffed in disbelief, feeling her aching jaw shake and her teeth chatter. "I don't want to be your mate. Please. Choose somebody else. There are many other she-wolves. Don't choose me!"

"Too late."

As Lilia choked back the many questions that surged through her mind, Roan brushed the loose curls away from her face. "It'll be better than you think, I promise." He brought his lips to her ear, grazing against it slightly. "On the bright side, none of the other wolves can hurt you anymore. Only I have the power to discipline you."

Lilia swallowed nervously. He couldn't tell her what to do. No one could tell her who she was to mate with or who she wasn't. Not even the older wolves could ever have that authority over her in her obstinate mind. She loved her pack brothers, but not enough to strip herself over her dignity and independence for them. She would never allow them to control her, to control whom she loved or whom she loathed.

After gazing at her for a few silent seconds, Roan leaned down. Lilia's eyes widened and she looked away, turning her face away from him. She didn't want to kiss him. No way. At first, she thought he would get angry at her, force her to kiss him. Instead his lips landed on her neck. She gasped, her hands clamped at his shoulders trying to push him away. Then, she felt a sharp, deep pain on her neck. She cried out in pain, Roan's teeth pierce her neck as he heard him groan against her protesting form. Warm blood trickled down to her collarbone. Her eyes watered.

Finally, he broke away from her, leaving her with a gaping mark on her neck. Her hand reached up to touch it, as she looked at Roan who only smiled at her. Lilia shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe it. She just couldn't. He'd claimed her as her mate. He bit her.

"GET OUT!" she shrieked, her voice piercing through every wall in the house. "GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW BEFORE I—!"

Roan grabbed her by her neck, silencing her screams. He slammed her body against the bedroom wall, making the frames hanging on the walls shake. He breathed deeply, his hands securing around her neck. "Be quiet. You'll wake your mother."

Lilia gasped for air, the nails of her fingers digging into the back of Roan's hands. She hoped they'd leave a mark on him.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. What I proposed earlier was the easy way. The hard way consists of a lot more of this,"—he tightened his hands further around her neck, she could feel the blood cutting off from her head—"and a lot more of what Shiloh did to you this morning, and I would prefer to do it the easy way to save you from any more of this. Understand?"

Lilia nodded just slightly.

He smiled, traces of her blood in between his teeth and blotted on his lips. "Good." His hands let go of her.

She wheezed as she collapsed on all fours on the ground. Her eyes were hollow in their sockets, and the blood from her neck streamed all the way down to her stomach. She looked up and saw Roan about to jump out of her window before he shot her one last grin.

"Sorry about that…" he chirped nonchalantly. "I get a little ahead of myself sometimes."

All she could do was glare at him from the ground.

"Goodnight, Lilia."

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**A/N: So... I've been sick for, like, a week and have been too tired to write or upload... sorry. And I go back to school August 7 (aha kill me) but I signed up for less classes because aha last year was hell for me. So hopefully I'll still have time to update. Anyway, leave your thoughts in the **reviews**! Last chapter I didn't get any which I thought was odd, but whatever! You guys must be busy too, ya know. I understand. Anyway, yeah! Next chapter should be back in present time. Thanks for reading.**


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